Harry Potter and the Colourmorphus
by Nice Huntress
Summary: Harry Potter is entering his sixth year at Hogwarts with his friends, old and new... TITLE CHANGED
1. Chapter 1 Offer to leave and Birthday

AN: This story has been thoughly planned (I hope) and should have no mistakes like I made in PMP

Chapter 1 – Offer to leave, birthdays and worries

For once, there was silence at the breakfast table where four people sat quietly (for now anyway). A fat man with a moustache and thinning hair who was reading the paper and drinking tea; a tall skinny woman who was slowly eating her breakfast with thin, willowy fingers; an extremely obese boy of around sixteen who was stuffing food into his mouth at an excessive rate; and finally, a thin boy of around sixteen with shocking longish-black hair and emerald green eyes who was eating the scraps these people had given him.

"Boy, pass the juice." The fat man ordered. The thin black haired boy picked up the jug of orange and passed it over the table to the man.

"A thank you would be nice." The boy muttered under his breath.

"What was that boy?" The fat man asked acidly.

"Nothing Uncle Vernon." The boy replied in a bored tone. It had been like this for the past month, the boy, Harry Potter, getting consistently glared and shouted out whilst the obese boy, his cousin Dudley Dursley, watched and sniggered.

The room was silent again for a moment until an owl swooped through the window and landed on the table, holding a leg with a letter on to Harry, who took the crisp white envelope from it's bindings on the owls leg.

See, Harry wasn't a normal teen like his cousin Dudley (though Harry would claim he was more normal than Dudley would_ ever_ be). Harry was a wizard who had recently come home from his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school Harry attended with his best friends Hermione Granger, a pretty muggle-born witch and Ron Weasley, a dopey pure-blooded wizard.

Anyway, Harry read his name on the back of the envelope and then turned it over, and, recognising the seal as the Hogwarts seal he ripped it open. Inside were a few letters, and then Harry realised the envelope was a bit bigger than usual.

He dug his hand into the envelope and pulled out the usual letters- supplies list and introductory letter- though then he tipped the rest of the contents onto the table and pulled open the next letter.

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_ It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as this years Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, enclosed in your usual envelope is this letter and your badge, which you shall be required to wear at all times during school hours. Enjoy your holidays and I shall see you again in the new school term. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonnagal, Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

Harry slowly picked up the badge and stared at it. "Shouldn't Katie have this title?" He asked himself, Katie _was_ the only seventh year on the team, though Harry had been in the team for the same amount of time as her, so that was probably what counted.

Harry ignored the Dursley's and quickly ran upstairs to his room and pulled out some parchment and a quill from his trunk before leaning against his desk to write.

_You'd never guess what, I'm Quidditch captain! Cool huh? See you soon -Harry._ He quickly jotted down, before giving the note to Hedwig.

"Give this to Si-" He stopped, the note was meant for Sirius, but Harry had forgotten he wasn't there anymore in the excitement of becoming Captain. Harry took the note back from Hedwig. "Never mind Hedwig, just being stupid." He ripped the note up and threw it in the small bin he had in his room. "Just stupid." He told himself again, before going back into the kitchen downstairs, grabbing his school letters and leaving the house.

Harry walked around Little Whinging for a while, wandering aimlessly through the streets until lunch, when he started to head back home. 'Well, not _home_.' Harry thought, 'Hogwarts is home.' He told himself.

As Harry reached the door of Number 4 Privet Drive, the door was wrenched open and a _very_ red-faced Uncle Vernon stood there.

"Hurry up boy!" He hissed, Harry, confused, quickly hurried in and followed his Uncle to the lounge.

"Wotcher Harry!" said a now black curly haired Tonks. She looked beautiful with her hair put into a messy ponytail with some strands down the side of her heart shaped face.

"Hey Tonks, Remus, Moody." Harry said politely, nodding to the three, "What're you doing here?" He continued, Remus and Tonks shared uneasy glances.

"We're here to take you back to Order Headquarters Harry." said Remus uneasily, Harry frowned.

"I'm not going." He stated stubbornly.

"C'mon Harry, we all miss you there!" Tonks told him in a false cheery tone, Harry shook his head and looked down.

"I'm fine here, can't I just see everyone at Kings Cross?" He asked pleadingly, "I don't think I could go back there just yet, I'd prefer to stay in this hell compared to what that place would be."

"It was worth a try." Said Moody.

"Oh well." Tonks muttered.

"We have some things to bring anyway Harry." Remus stated with a grin, Harry looked curious.

"What exactly?" He asked.

"Well, I'm sure it'll be someone's sixteenth tomorrow." Stated Tonks thoughtfully, Harry hit his forehead.

"Damn! I forgot!" He exclaimed.

"Oh poor you." Tonks said without really registering what he had said, "But we have presents!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, you didn't have too." Harry muttered embarrassedly, he knew he'd be going a shade of red to rival the Weasley's.

"Yes we did." Remus stated, eyeing the over-sized clothes Harry wore. "Most of the Order chipped in."

"Oh, thanks I guess." Harry muttered.

"Don't thank us yet." Moody said, then went back to enlarging the ever-growing pile of presents.

"What's so good about turning sixteen in the muggle world then?" Remus asked, "It really means nothing in the wizarding world."

"Well, you can smoke legally." Harry said thoughtfully, "You can buy a house with a parents permission in your name, um… you get free ID cards." Harry stopped, a huge grin forming on his face, "And you can have legal sex." He continued slyly, Moody spluttered, Remus choked on his drink and Tonks burst out laughing.

"Great one Harry!" She said through her laughter, Harry grinned impishly at her.

"Hey Harry, start opening some presents." Remus suggested embarrassedly, Harry picked up the first one and slowly unwrapped it. Inside were a few casual robes he could wear. The next few packages he opened were all clothes.

"Wow. These are nice." Harry commented, holding a pair of jeans to himself. "Thanks."

"Thank you Harry. Me, Molly, Hermione, Ginny and Minerva spent ages trying to find the best things, Ginny said you'd look, I think it was 'Damn H.O.T.T' in her precise words, wearing fitting jeans, and Hermione agreed." Tonks stated with a mischievous smirk, Harry blushed.

"Right. Anyway." He muttered, hiding his blush by opening the next present, which was a large trunk with four locks. Harry stared in awe at the golden wood colour box with his name inscribed in the top in beautiful calligraphy. It had four golden locks and looked a bit like Moody's trunk. "Wow, this is amazing. Thanks." He said in awe.

"Thought you might like that." Moody stated with a scary smile that looked out of place on the disfigured face.

Harry also received a wand holster for his arm, _"So it doesn't go back in your pocket again." _Moody had told him, a new wand polishing kit, a broom servicing kit and some other odd items. What struck Harry as confusing however, was the hair gel and other hair products.

"Oh, I was hoping you'd cut your hair and try spiking it." Tonks suggested, to which Harry looked thoughtful to and nodded.

He also got some proto-types from Fred and George, along with a box and note attached.

_Hey Investor, we thought you might like one of these jackets, it's like ours, only black not green. Make sure you don't tell Charlie it's dragonhide though, he's already lectured us on ours. Tell him it's leather or something._

_See you soon, Gred and Forge_

Harry grinned and opened the box, pulling out an impressively styled jacket. He slipped it on and even though it was slightly too big for him, it looked good.

"Nice, who got you that?" Tonks asked, circling Harry and eyeing the jacket.

"Gred and Forge did." Harry replied, admiring the jacket.

"Get some more muscle on ya, and it'd fit." Tonks continued. Harry blushed again and went back to opening presents.

He also received some weights, which Tonks told him would come in handy for getting girls (which Harry promptly blushed at again), he got books from Hermione, a book about Quidditch from Ron and other small things from his other individual friends in the Order. His favourite gift though, was a leather friendship band Ginny had made him, which he got Tonks to tie on his wrist for him.

"See you soon then Harry." Tonks said sadly, giving him a sisterly hug. Remus hugged him also.

"Shame you didn't want to come back to Headquarters. We'll see you at the station." The three apparated out with a crack.

"See you then." Harry muttered, looking at the spot where they left before going upstairs to his room, slightly regretting not agreeing to go.

Harry opened his trunk when he got into his room and pulled out some homework, 'Might as well get some more finished' he thought.

'Describe in detail the effects of these hexes and list them in order of destructibility' was the question he had gotten for DADA summer work, and the list had at least thirty hexes on it.

Harry spent four hours sorting out and researching the hexes and only stopped when he was called for dinner. Having missed lunch, he was incredibly hungry.

He sat eating his small dinner like usual, Dudley was once again flipping channels on his small T.V. On Vernon's command, he stopped it on the seven o clock news.

"Today, thirteen people were found dead and several others were found insane around the area of an extremely bizarre accident in Watford." Harry's head snapped up to the T.V, "Now to our reporter who is currently at the scene."

"Yes yes." The man who was standing in front of a taped off area around a street said, "So far, thirteen mysterious deaths have been reported and eight people have been found and classified as insane. Events like this have puzzled police for the past few weeks from all around the country, though none have been as big as this.

"Are these mysterious deaths, disappearances and insanity problems all linked? This reporter is determined to find out." The table sat in silence for a moment, until the phone rung, causing everyone to jump. Petunia went up to get the phone and came back a moment later with a sour face.

"Who would be calling you Potter?" She asked, Harry shrugged and went to the phone curiously.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Harry?" Came a nervous girls voice.

"Hermione? Is that you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, me." Hermione replied. "Did you just see the news?" Came her worried voice.

"Yeah I saw it. Obviously Death Eaters." Harry told her, he could almost see her nodding at him.

"Obviously," She replied, "It's strange, there have been disappearances here in Clacton too. I think Voldemort's trying to murder muggleborns, a friend of mine who I was the last to see went missing also, I'm really worried about her, I _know_ Voldemort's got her, I owled Dumbledore but I don't think he can do much and I can't really leave the house if Voldemort's after me too can I?" Hermione started to sound near hysterical.

"Mione, calm down." Harry ordered, "I'll owl Dumbledore and tell him to get you to HQ, in the mean time, stay inside and stay calm, don't send any owls, ok?" He asked, he heard a muffled sob down the end of the line, "Mione?"

"I'm fine, sorry. Please tell him to hurry, I don't like it here." She said before hanging up.

Harry wandered back to his room and pulled a quill and some parchment from his trunk.

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,_

_Hermione has just rung me on the phone and she sounds really upset and worried, her friend has just gone missing and was last seen with her. Hermione doesn't feel safe and she wanted to know if anyone could pick her up. Thank you,_

_H.P_

Harry wrote down before rolling it up and giving it to Hedwig.

"Hey girl, take this to Dumbledore for me please." Hedwig hooted before flying off. "Poor Hermione." He muttered to himself before getting back to his summer work.

**AN: I was thinking of making this a long-lost-relative story. I have the basic outline but I'm not sure if I should do this or not, please review with responses so that I have slight indication on your views. I like the idea of long lost relatives popping up, but I'm worried that it'll seem too cheesy. Review! Please!**


	2. Chapter 2 New Haircut

**AN: Ignore what I said about the long lost family, I've decided to write that out of this story as it was a little too complicated to write and I have already pre-written the first few chapters so the long lost relative would've made things a lot more complicated in my current plot for this story (and in my sequel ideas). I think I might write a long lost relative story though… Give me your views on that.**

**Also, I have a Yahoo! Group, the link for it is on my author's page and I'm working on it so it's getting information about each of the stories _and_ characters! Please join! And also make sure you check out Awakening by my friend Chole (I've got it posted under my name for her) it's a really good story (so far) and I was really surprised when I read the first instalment of it in our textiles lesson the other day!**

**Chapter 2 – New Haircut**

Harry sat at the unusually silent breakfast table; he was waiting for his uncle to start commenting on his freakishness or to go over the plans (more likely _plan_) for the day… again.

The Dursley's would be going to London for the day to buy Dudley his new school uniform (specially fitted as he was still the size of a small whale like last year) and had agreed to take Harry up there so that he could buy his new school equipment and books in Diagon Alley.

"Boy, you are to meet us at three where we drop you off, remember that or we will go without you." Vernon said gruffly, Harry rolled his eyes.

"Yes Uncle Vernon, I'll make sure that I do." He replied monotonelessly. Finishing the last of his scraps, he got up, put his plate in the sink and then sat back down at the table. He unlatched a money pouch from his new leather belt (with a real silver buckle) and emptied it onto the table (he done this mainly to count his money, but also to gloat to those overly annoying relatives of his). The Dursley's stared wide-eyed at the huge golden galleons, medium sized silver sickles and small bronze knuts. "Twelve galleons, eight sickles and twenty three knuts. I need more money then." Harry muttered to himself quietly, he would also need to exchange some money into the pound sterling as he planned on getting his hair cut sometime soon and didn't really fancy the idea of getting it cut in some wizarding salon, knowing the styles were completely different now than to that of the muggle world's styles and also knowing that he'd be stared at freakishly if he set foot in the wizarding community for too long. Harry also wanted to get some new glasses and maybe some contact lenses as his glasses were a little too small for him now (considering the fact that they were the same pair he started out with when he was a year three all those years ago).

He had been training with his new weights (courtesy of Tonks) quite often and was glad that it seemed to be working, well, _seemed _to be working a _tiny_ bit, but it was still working (he thought so anyway).

"C'mon Dudder's, lets go get your new school things." Vernon said to Dudley, who ignored his father and sat watching the TV still. "Dudder's?" Dudley turned and grunted like the pig he was before looking back at his TV. Vernon turned it off and led (more like tried to drag in Harry's opinion) his son to the car. Sitting in the back next to Dudley, he felt claustrophobic, but kept quiet and let them drive him to the magical community's entrance.

They dropped him off and the second Harry was out of the car, Vernon zoomed off speedily in his new car, as if not wanting to be seen near the abomination that was his nephew, nephew through marriage of course. Harry approached the grubby building that was the Leaky Cauldron and went inside. The minute he entered, everybody stopped and stared and the old barkeeper, Tom, approached him.

"Mr Potter, would you be needing anything? A drink? Room?" The man asked kindly.

"Um, no thanks, I just need to get my school things." Harry refused politely and made his way towards the back to go outside to Diagon Alley.

He tapped the bricks with his wand and ventured into the Alley. People from all around stared at him and Harry looked ahead with a (nearly) positive attitude, he could take this, it wasn't so bad. He kept repeating that mantra to himself in his head, over and over again.

Harry went strait for Gringott's and got some money from his vault and then exchanged some into muggle money, he got a few hundred pound sterling, stylish new glasses and a pair of nice contacts would cost at least a hundred and fifty alone, let alone a haircut too.

Harry walked around Diagon Alley for a while, getting his school things. He noticed a sign on the door of the Magical Menagerie and curious, he entered. A bell tinkled in the back but a woman was already standing at the counter, serving some teens that Harry recognised from Hogwarts, _'Maybe Hufflepuffs' _he thought. Ignoring them, Harry approached the glass tanks in the corner.

Inside the first tank was a long, black snake, it stared at Harry before lazily putting it's head back down. The snake that struck Harry as most interesting was a sapphire coloured snake with onyx coloured eyes.

Hi, I'm Harry. Harry hissed softly to it, it looked up, surprised.

You speak my language. It hissed, Harry nodded. Amazing. Harry snorted.

Well, what's your name? He asked.

I have none, that's up for my master to decide. The male snake stated.

Fancy sticking around with me then? As friends? Harry asked it.

Friends? It asked, Harry nodded. If you say so. Harry smiled and got the shop assistant's attention.

"Hi, I'd like this one." Harry stated, the woman looked shocked.

"Mr Potter, is a snake a wise choice? We have plenty of recommendable sleek white mice over there." The woman stated, gesturing the mice, which were skipping around with their tails.

"No, this snake is fine for me. I'll need everything else needed for it also." Harry stated, the woman nodded and went to the back to get a plastic cage to put the snake into. She hesitantly put her hand into the cage hesitantly, as if the snake would attack at any moment.

"Here, let me." Harry said, he stuck his hand straight in and let the sapphire snake climb onto his arm where it curled around his wrist. "How much would that all be?" Harry asked, the woman looked relatively shocked but went behind the counter and counted the total on the magical cash register.

"Two galleons, sixteen sickles and fourteen knuts." She replied, Harry took out the correct change and handed it to her. "Thank you." Harry nodded and left.

Thanks. The snake hissed from Harry's wrist. The Boy-Who-Lived smiled calmly and looked down at his new companion, pulling back his new, black dragon-hide jacket slightly.

No problem. He replied, Now… you need a name. Any suggestions?

I'm sure you can think of a suitable name yourself. The snake replied, Harry looked thoughtful for a moment.

How about Zodiac? Harry asked, The snake nodded slightly.

Zodiac. It said, testing the name on his tongue, I like it. Thank you Harry.

Don't mention it. Now I need to go get some new robes. Harry told his new friend and headed for Madam Malkin's.

Harry went into Madam Malkin's, as he needed new school uniform because he had obviously grown over the past few years.

Harry was immediately noticed by one of the young assistants, who eyed him warily. Another assistant, who was serving a young female customer, looked at him briefly, before abruptly turning away.

"Ahh, afternoon Mr Potter." Madam Malkin said kindly, "What would you be needing today?" She asked.

"I just need some new school uniform, I've grown out of mine." Harry told her. "I might also need some winter cloaks and casual robes." He added, Madam Malkin just nodded.

"Just go stand over on that stool and I'll be right with you." She stated, indicating a stool next to the young girl being served. The young girl was obviously going to be a first year, she had long, pure black messy hair and kind brown eyes, her and Harry could be passed off as brother and sister had Harry not known better.

Harry walked over and stood on the stool, scaring the assistant helping the young girl.

"So Mr Potter, your a Gryffindor right?" Madam Malkin asked unnecessarily as she came over to him, bringing some robes and normal school wear with her. "Here, just quickly try on this uniform, I'm presuming you'd also need a whole uniform?" She asked, Harry nodded with a small smile.

"Thank you, and please call me Harry, I'm not as insane as Rita Skeeter makes me out to be." He told her confidently, going to one of the small offside changing room. He slipped on the crisp white shirt and grey woollen over-vest quickly, then left the changing room and stood back on the stool where Madam Malkin indicated him to stand, he looked much better in the mirrors than he had done five years ago when he had last been there.

"Ah, perfect fit as usual." Madam Malkin muttered to herself and then produced a school robe. "Slip this on for me." Harry pulled on the cloak and buttoned it up, then let Madam Malkin do her work.

The little girl who was being served smiled nervously at him.

"Hey." He said softly, "This your first year at Hogwarts?" He asked curiously, the girl nodded slightly, looking over nervously to who Harry presumed was her mother, who was waiting on one of the chairs with a few bags. "I'm Harry." He introduced himself.

"Oh, I'm Sara." She replied meekly.

"So Sara, are you muggleborn?" Harry asked, trying to strike conversation, the girl nodded again.

"I think that's what it's called." She whispered, Harry smiled sympathetically.

"Getting used to this world will take some time, but it gets better." He reassured the petite girl, Sara nodded.

"Are you muggleborn too then?" She asked, Harry looked slightly thoughtful.

"Yes and no." He said awkwardly, confusing Sara a bit, "I was raised by muggles, but my parents were magical." He explained, confusing Sara more.

"Raised by muggles? They're normal people right? What about your parents?" She asked, the witch attending her eeped and pricked her finger; Harry raised an eyebrow at her, then looked back at Sara and sighed.

"Muggles are people without magic and my parents were murdered by an evil wizard called Voldemort." Harry explained, the witch serving Sara eeped again and stared at Harry fearfully. "What? It's his name." He stated to her before turning back to Sara with a roll of his eyes. "Most wizards and witches are afraid to say his name, but they shouldn't be. A wise person once told me fear of the name only increases fear for the thing itself. Don't listen to any pure or half bloods who call him some ridiculous name, just call him Voldemort and if they ask why, tell them Harry told you too because its stupid to fear a name." Sara nodded again.

"Why are people scared of his name?" She asked, Harry looked at her for a second, as if seeing if she was worth telling.

"I might as well explain, you'll find out soon anyway." He stated, "I told you he was an evil wizard right?" At Sara's nod he continued, "Well, about sixteen years ago, he was at his height, killing people for fun and ordering his servants, called Death Eaters, to do his bidding, which was normally murdering and torturing innocent people. Well, about fifteen years ago, on Halloween, he went to one families house and murdered the Mum and Dad, though when he tried to murder the one year old child, his curse backfired and he was... banished for a while. Though about two years ago, he came back using that child's (though now a teenagers) blood, even though he's only just come back publicly a few weeks ago." Harry explained, he didn't tell her _whom_ Voldemort tried to kill for a reason.

A while later, Harry exited Madam Malkins with a few bags of things. He started off down the busy street, but halted after he heard his name being called.

"Harry!" Sara called again; she ran up to him and stopped, red in the face because she was out of breath. She flashed a large grin at him. "Do you feel like an ice cream? My Mum wanted to know more about the wizarding world and you really explained a few things in there." She added, Harry smiled genuinely.

"Sure, why not?" He replied, before following Sara back to her Mum.

"Hello, I'm Karla, you must be Harry." The kind looking woman said, she had short brown hair and blue eyes.

"Yeah, that's me." Harry told her with a grin. "Thanks for offering me ice cream, I think I could use some." He deadpanned as they walked to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, which was a little down the road.

"What year are you in then Harry?" Karla asked curiously.

"I'm going into my sixth year in Gryffindor, one of the four houses." Harry told the mother and daughter.

"Four houses?" Sara asked, "What if I'm not asked to be in one? What if-"

"Don't worry, I thought the same thing." Harry said with a grin, "You will be accepted into whatever house you get into." He reassured.

"What are the house names?" Karla asked him curiously, glad to have someone explain this whole new world that her daughter was entering to her.

"Gryffindor, which is my house and is for brave people, Hufflepuff for the kind and loyal, Ravenclaw for the smart and Slytherin for the cunning. Slytherin and Gryffindor are enemies, have been since the school was made. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw normally try to stay neutral within it all, though Slytherin would _never _accept one of their own befriending a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor." Harry explained as they sat down at a free table, some people were giving him strange looks, though he ignored them.

"Why not though?" Sara asked, "I mean, what if I'm a Slytherin, would you still talk to me?" Harry smiled at her.

"You would never turn out to be Slytherin, trust me." Harry told her.

"Harry!" Someone exclaimed happily, a slightly pudgy teen that looked Harry's age approached.

"Hey Neville. How are you?" Harry asked, "And how's the nose?"

"I'm fine, nose has been fine since Pomfrey fixed it." Neville answered, and then looked at Harry concernedly, "Are you alright? Everyone's worried about you, you haven't really answered any of our letters." He said, Harry looked down at his melting ice cream.

"I'm fine I think." He said softly, "Every time I get visions, I want to write to him, though after I've written the letter, I realise he's gone, y'know what I mean?" Neville nodded slightly.

"Yeah, we're all really sorry mate." He said sincerely.

"I know, but not as sorry as me. It was my fault." Harry stated, then shook his head, "Anyways, I've decided to take a new approach at life, y'know? I'll take advantage of the time I've got."

"You talk as if your gonna die." Neville stated seriously.

"You have no idea." Harry muttered under his breath, though Sara and Karla heard him still.

"Anyway Harry, I have to go, I'll see you on the train?" Neville asked, Harry nodded.

"Sure. See you, good luck with your Gran." He added, Neville grinned and left. "That's Neville, one of my dorm mates." Harry said to Karla and Sara.

"Dorm mates?" Sara asked with a small squeak.

"Yeah, don't worry though, it's rare that you'll not get along with them. I get along with mine fine, I've only ever had an argument with one of them because of something stupid, though me and my best friend, another dorm mate of mine always argue over something ridiculous." Harry said with a smirk.

"Oh well, all friends do." Karla stated with a small smile, "My husband loves to argue with his friends about the football results."

"Same with me and Ron, though we argue over Quidditch." Harry said, they looked confused, "Oh, Quidditch is the main wizarding sport, right fun. Each house has their own team."

"What's it like?" Sara asked, intrigued.

"Well, you're on brooms for starters." Harry explained, "And there are seven players on each team, a keeper, three chasers, two beaters and a seeker, whose goal is to catch a little thing called the golden snitch..." Harry carried on explaining the game for a while.

"Cool." Sara muttered when Harry finished explaining, "I can't wait to try out for my team."

"You can't." A feminine voice said from behind Harry, who just scowled as she came into view.

"Cho." Harry said with a polite nod even thought a scowl was still placed firmly on his face.

"Harry, I think we need to talk." The pretty Asian girl stated, Harry shook his head.

"If it's anything about Cedric, I don't want to know. Dumbledore told you what happened that night, I'm not really wanting to relive it again." He told her acidly, Cho looked shocked but quickly recovered.

"Well, um... we're gonna thrash you this year and the Quidditch Cup will be sitting on a shelf in Flitwicks office by this time next year." She stated with a smirk, walking away.

"Ha! You wish!" Harry exclaimed a bit too loudly, attracting attention of other tables, who stared at him before breaking into whispers.

"It's him!"

"Do you reckon he's actually crazy?"

"But Fudge apologised!"

"And? Could be a front."

Harry groaned at the whisperings and turned to Karla and Sara.

"Sorry, I have to go, I'll see you at the station most probably. Thanks for the ice cream." He said with a smile and short wave before leaving Diagon Alley at a quick pace.

Harry wandered around muggle London for a while, he popped into some muggle clothes shops and brought some more new clothes. He had always had this money sitting in his bank account, why did he never use it?

Harry also popped into an opticians, where he brought a new pair of glasses and two pairs of contact lenses, one pair clear, the other blue.

As Harry continued to walk around, buying several things for himself, he spotted a shop he had been wanting to go in since he had gotten Tonks' birthday presents of various hair products; a hairdressers. Entering nervously, he approached the front desk, some of the women in there were staring, and a girl around his age, who was having her hair done… well… her jaw dropped straight down.

"Hi, I was wondering if I could maybe get a quick cut?" Harry asked.

"Well, you'd normally need an appointment." The young woman stated, checking the book in front of her, "But someone has just cancelled, so you could fill their spot." She said politely.

"Thanks." Harry said genuinely.

"Just pass me your jacket." She requested, Harry took off the dragon-hide jacket, revealing his dark red, sleeveless shirt underneath. The years of Quidditch training had done him good. "And follow me." She indicated for him to sit next to the teen girl who stared beforehand (and was still staring). He sat down and waited. A woman came up to him a moment later.

"Good afternoon." She said cheerfully.

"Hi." Harry replied.

"So Mr…"

"Harry, my names just Harry." Harry stated, even though these people were muggles, he still didn't want to risk the fact that a witch or wizard might be there.

"Ok then Harry, what sort of style would you like?" The woman asked. "And the names Angela." She added.

"I just want it cut, something that would look good spiked." Harry stated.

"Looks like you don't have that problem, your hairs a mess." Angela joked, Harry just laughed.

"Don't I know it. New year, new style." He stated happily.

"Oh." Angela muttered, she sprayed his hair lightly with water before starting to cut it. "So what school around here do you go to?" She asked.

"Oh, I don't. I go to a private boarding school in the north. I don't live around here anyways, I live in Surrey." Harry explained, watching as an ebony lock of his fell to the floor.

"Surrey? What are you doing getting your hair cut here then?" Angela asked, Harry shrugged.

"Relatives are stuck up prats." He replied nonchalantly.

"I wouldn't say that, their your family." Angela stated.

"I came to a theory," Harry said slowly, as if not sure whether to tell her, "Your family doesn't have to be by blood, they have to be people who love you and care for you. Relatives aren't always family." He told her wisely.

"That's not really true." Angela stated.

"Yeah, it is." Harry said bitterly.

"I think every relative has to care a little for their families." Angela said softly, noting that Harry's voice had a cold tone to it.

"They don't." Harry replied forcefully, "My only family are my friends."

"What about your parents?" Angela asked.

"They died when I was one, and the only person that has ever even resembled a father died a few weeks ago." Harry replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Angela said, suddenly feeling a little bad about not understanding why he felt bad about his relatives.

"Don't be, he went out the way he wanted too." Harry stated, a tear slipped down his cheek and he roughly wiped it away, though it didn't go unnoticed.

"It's ok to cry and be upset." Angela stated, "My step-father died of cancer when I was a teenager, he was the only Dad I had ever known. But he wanted me to be happy, and I am."

"Sorry." Harry apologised.

"Nah, don't be. I've grieved, I'm now living a life that I enjoy." Angela stated with a grin. "So, boarding school, huh? You must be smart."

"Hmm, it's not really a smart school, just a boarding school." Harry stated. "Though one of my best friends got the best exam results known of for our school, she's one of the smartest girls to enter the walls of our school."

"Wow, must be good for homework then." Angela said with a sly grin, Harry laughed sardonically.

"No way! She makes us do homework the day we get it, and she won't let me or Ron copy." Harry stated. "She's _evil_ when it comes to homework. Especially revision. And she's not always in the same classes as me or Ron!"

"I had a friend like that." Angela stated, "He's my husband now."

"Hmm, that's weird. It's so obvious that my two friends like each other, but they are both too stubborn to admit it." Harry stated thoughtfully, Angela laughed.

"That's what me and Dave were like, but our friends set us up, now we're inseparable and it annoys them to hell." Angela stated with a giggle, Harry chuckled.

They exchanged pleasant conversation until Angela was finished, Harry thanked her and left her quite a large tip before leaving, he told her it was because she had made him feel so much better about himself, though she didn't really understand that.

Harry met back up with the Dursley's and they made their way home.

After dinner, Harry went for his nightly walk, he stopped at the battered park and sat on one of the only swings that wasn't vandalised. He rocked on it slowly, thinking about the strange day he had had today and also thinking about these past few months and how everything had changed on that fateful day that Sirius fell through the veil.

After returning from Diagon Alley, Harry had stuffed all of his new clothes, school books and equipment, and had hidden all of his wizarding currency in his new trunk that Moody had gotten him for his birthday, and the keys stayed on the key ring (A small golden-yellow lightening bolt) that was now permanently attached to a chain that rested on his belt hooks and then was stuffed in his jeans pocket.

"Harry?" Came a meek girls voice. Startled; Harry looked up to see a person he least expected to see standing in front of him with the street light flooding past her from behind, illuminating her being like a guardian angel.

**AN: Ha ha! I left a cliffe! I can ACTUALLY write them for once! Try guess who this girl is, ten points if you get the right answer! :p lol**

**Oh! And PS, REVIEW! PLEASE! Lol, thanks. And remember to visit my Yahoo Group! I'm still working on it mind you!**


	3. Chapter 3 OWL Results and Babysitting

**Chapter 3 – OWL results and Babysitting **

**Last time on Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch:**

_"Harry?" Came a meek girls voice, startled, Harry looked up to see a person he least expected to see standing with the street light flooding past her from behind, illuminating her being like a guardian angel._

**And now, on Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch:**

"Sara?" Harry asked, the small girl nodded slowly and Harry patted the swing next to him. "What are you doing here? It's eight and it's starting to get dark." He asked concernedly, he realised that he cared a little more for this young girl more than any other younger girl, not in a fancying way, but like he cared for Hermione, like a brother would their younger sister (he chose to ignore the fact that Hermione was _older_ than him).

"I was on my way home!" Sara replied indignantly, Harry chuckled, "I saw someone over here, and I wanted to see if they were alright." She added worriedly, Harry sighed.

"I'm fine." He stated, not sure if he was trying to convince himself or Sara.

"You sure?" She asked, "You said to your friend earlier that you get visions, what did you mean? Is that why you're so obviously upset?"

"Yes I'm sure and I don't think you'd like to know why I get visions and no, that's not the reason." Harry replied.

"Do all witches get them?" She asked fearfully, "Visions I mean." Harry shook his head.

"Only some, normally seers." He stated. "And I'm a wizard." He then corrected.

"Are you a seer then?" Sara asked, Harry shook his head.

"Look, you could get hurt by hanging out with me, your safer just pretending you never met me." Harry stated, a little coldly. He glanced at the eleven-year-old girl, who looked a little hurt now and sighed. "Sorry." He apologised. "I have a habit of pushing people away."

"Why?" Sara asked insistently.

"It's complicated." Harry stated.

"Uncomplicated it then." Sara retorted bossily, Harry shook his head with a small smile, she could've easily been related closely to him even though her bossiness reminded him of his bushy-haired best friend.

"Remember that family I told you about? The one where the parents got killed?" He asked her, Sara nodded slowly as she recalled the conversation in Madam Malkins'. "I'm that boy, I'm famous in the wizarding world for doing something I don't really remember doing. See this scar?" He moved his shocking black bangs and pointed to the lightening bolt-like scar, which was just visible under his new haircut, Sara nodded as she studied it. "I got that from him. And some of his power transferred to me also. Like the ability to be a parseltongue."

"A what?"

"A parseltongue; the name of somebody with the ability to talk to snakes." Harry explained briefly, "See this snake here, I brought him today, he's called Zodiac." He rolled up his sleeve to show Sara his new sapphire coloured friend.

What do you w-w-w-want? Zodiac asked through a yawn.

Go back to sleep Zodiac. Harry said with a grin, the snake nodded and rested it's head back down again. "He's tired."

"Oh." Sara muttered. "I had better head home now." She added, Harry noticed that Dudley's gang were at the end of the road that you had to walk down to leave the park.

"Let me walk you, I don't want my cousin to hurt you in any way." He stated, Sara looked confused. "Over there." He nodded towards the group and Sara nodded slightly. She started to lead him in the direction of her house.

"Oh look! If it isn't Potter and his new girlfriend!" Dudley exclaimed, Harry sneered and spun around to glare at his cousin.

"Don't mess with me Dudley. Remember, you owe your life to me." He warned.

"They couldn't have hurt me." Dudley said, a little less confident than before.

"What did you see Dudley? What did you hear?" Harry asked loudly, "Because every time one of those things come near me I hear my mother _begging_ Him not to kill me! I see her final moments in life! If your memory was worse than that, enlighten me to it!" Harry shouted before stalking off, Sara followed him quickly without a backwards glance.

"What were you talking about?" She asked imploringly, _'Yep, definitely like me.'_ Harry thought amusedly, calming himself down a bit with that thought.

"Something you'll never have to experience I hope." He stated with an edge to his voice as he tried to calm down a little more.

"What do you mean?" Sara asked.

"Well, there are thousands of creatures in the wizarding world, and not all of them are good. Some are classified 'Dark', but some of those are really fighting for the good. A great friend of mine, he's a werewolf, and werewolves are classified as 'Dark Creatures', but he's great." Harry explained to her. "But the ones I was talking to my cousin about, they're called Dementors. They make one forget every good memory they have and makes them relive their worst memory. If they manage to get near you, they give you something called the 'Dementors Kiss', where they suck your soul from your body." Harry explained, Sara paled.

"Really?" She asked, Harry nodded.

"I won't lie to you, the wizarding world is at war, a vicious one at that, but Hogwarts is possibly the safest place in the whole wide damn world." Harry told her sincerely. "There are few other places like that."

"A war?" Sara asked worriedly, Harry nodded.

"I don't mean to scare you or anything, but it's completely true. We're doing everything we can to prevent too much happening though." Harry stated sincerely. "This is your house then?" He asked as Sara led him down the path of quite a large house.

"Yeah. Maybe you should come inside for a little while." Sara said hopefully as she rung the doorbell.

"Maybe another time." Harry said. The door opened and a man with black hair and bright blue eyes opened the door.

"Daddy, this is Harry, the one me and Mum met earlier today. He walked me home because there was a gang near the park." Sara said to her father, who shook his head slightly and held his hand out to Harry.

"Hi, Adam White." He introduced himself as, Harry shook his pro-offered hand.

"Harry Potter." Harry told him.

"Maybe you could come in and explain more about this wizarding world to us?" Adam asked, Harry sighed.

"Could I take you up on that offer another time? I have extremely annoying relatives." He told Adam, who nodded.

"Just make sure you do." Sara stated. "See you around." She added, Harry nodded and said a quick 'Bye' before leaving. He ignored the feeling of someone following him, knowing it had to be Order members, and made his way back to the Dursley residence.

Harry nervously knocked on the door of Sara's house. A small figure bounced towards the door and Harry could tell it was Sara through the distorted glass. She opened the door with a large grin on her face.

"Hiya Harry!" She exclaimed.

"Hi Sara." Harry replied calmly.

"Come in." Sara invited, she led him through a small passage and into a cozy looking room with warm beige leather settees and an oriental feel to the room. Children's toys were scattered about the floor and a little girl sat next to the ornamental fireplace. She looked up shyly.

"Hey Dawnie, meet Harry." Sara said to the girl, she walked over to her and picked her up. "Harry, this is Dawn, my little sister."

"How old is she?" Harry asked.

"Just three." Sara stated, "And she's being a brat already."

"No! Sara brat!" Dawn shouted at Sara with a tiny frown, which nearly made Harry laugh.

"See, told you so." Sara said.

"Don't make your sister angry, Sara." Karla said to her eldest daughter. "Afternoon Harry. Thanks for coming over."

"Thank you for inviting me." Harry replied politely.

"Would you like a drink or anything?" Karla asked. "We have water, juice, tea." Karla listed.

"I'm fine thank you." Harry told her, Karla nodded and sat down.

"Have a seat." She invited. Harry and Sara sat down, Dawn jumped onto the settee also and Karla rolled her eyes at the tiny toddler.

"So, what's it like at Hogwarts?" Sara asked excitedly, Harry chuckled.

"Well, it's great." He stated. "I mean, lessons are fun, the teachers are okay, well, most of them."

"What would that mean?" Karla asked, lifting the hyperactive Dawn into her lap.

"There's one professor who favours his students, he's the head of Slytherin." Harry explained. "He hates Gryffindor's, especially me." He added with a roll of his eyes.

"Why you?" Sara asked.

"Him and my Dad didn't get along the greatest in their school years." Harry told them with a wince upon remembering his time in Snape's pensive the year before.

"So what are the subjects like?" Karla asked.

"Subjects? Well there are lots." Harry stated.

"What's your favourite?" Sara asked.

"DADA." Harry replied without hesitation. "It stands for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Though we've only had one decent professor for it."

"What do you mean by 'one' decent professor?" Karla asked.

"Oh, well, some say the position is cursed, y'know, but every year, a different professor comes to teach it." Harry explained. "In first year, a minion of Voldemort's came, he had Voldemort literally sticking out of the back of his head and he wore this _huge_ turban that smelt of garlic.

In second year we had a professor who was very self obsessed. Though in third year was when we had the best professor. He was Professor Lupin. Though he left because he is a lycanthrope."

"A _what_?" Sara and Karla asked simultaneously.

"A werewolf." Harry explained.

"They exist?" Karla asked, Harry nodded.

"Yeah, though they aren't all evil, just classified as such. Remus is a nice guy." He stated. "Anyways, in fourth year we had an impostor and in fifth year we had some ministry official who, to put it bluntly, was an over-powered witch. We had to make an illegal club just to pass our exams!"

"Exams? When do you have exams?" Sara asked worriedly, Harry smirked.

"End of year ones every year." He stated, "But in fifth year you have OWL's and in seventh you have NEWT's. The OWL's were bloody hard too. You don't _have_ to take your NEWT's though, my business partner's didn't." He added thoughtfully.

"Business partners?" Karla asked, Harry grinned.

"I won a thousand galleons and they wanted to run a joke shop, so I gave them my money, I own a third of the stores profits and things." Harry explained. "Did you go into an orange shop by any chance whilst in Diagon Alley? Called Weasley Wizarding Wheezes?"

"Yeah! That was so cool! And there were these twins there, they gave me some free stuff!" Sara exclaimed.

"They would be my business partners. They are encouraging the new mischief makers of Hogwarts to shine." Harry stated in mock pride, Karla and Sara giggled.

They carried on talking about random things for a while, Adam White, Sara's Dad, came home from his bookshop just before dinner.

"Do you like it?" Karla asked Harry teasingly, who was helping himself to a third helping of roast potatoes.

"It's really nice." Harry complimented. "Thanks for inviting me round."

"That's okay, we wanted to know more about this school." Adam stated. "It seems like a very prestigeo-" He was cut off by a tapping at the window. They turned to it and a large barn owl was sitting there.

"An owl?" Karla muttered.

"Oh, post." Harry stated, Karla opened the window and the official looking owl flew to Harry and dropped a letter before flying off. Harry turned the envelope around in his hand curiously, it was addressed to him. The seal on the front was one he didn't recognise.

Harry ripped open the wax seal and carefully took out the letter. He paled as he read it and un-shed tears formed in his eyes.

"Harry?" Sara asked, Harry put the letter back into the envelope hastily and stuffed it in his pocket.

"It's nothing. Just errands." Harry stated, he wiped his eyes and started playing with his food.

"So, Harry, where about's do you live?" Adam asked.

"Privet Drive, with my Aunt." Harry said in a monotone voice.

"What about your parents?" Karla asked, Harry looked up.

"They died when I was little." He told them unemotionally.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Karla said sympathetically, Harry shrugged.

"It's not bad, I have friends and family now. I don't remember my parents." He replied.

"Voldemort killed them, right?" Sara asked, Harry nodded. "Is he still alive?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, there's only one person who can kill him though." Harry said quietly, but Sara heard anyways.

"Who?" She asked, genuinely curious. Harry looked up and into her eyes.

"Me."

"You have to kill someone?" Adam asked, he was now seemingly very concerned for his children's and wife's safety.

"It's either that or be killed and let the wizarding world be exposed." Harry said with a sigh. "It's a prophecy, they seem to rule my life a the moment. There was one saying that either me or another boy had to defeat him, then another saying he'd come back until that day."

"Prophecies? That seems a little surreal." Karla stated, Harry looked at her.

"It's not if your living it." He stated. "Voldemort's back, the safest place is Hogwarts and now he's back in the public eye, he's going to start terrorising big time. The wizarding world is at war, and I'm the only one who can stop him."

"Pressure or what." Sara muttered; Harry cracked the tiniest of smiles which looked odd on his normally grief stricken face, Sara was the first person to make him smile since the… incident.

"It's strange, I feel as though I can tell you this, but you're the only other people apart from Dumbledore to know that I'm the only one who can do it. Thanks for not judging me."

"Well, it'll be the easy way out to call you a murderer than to try to get to know you." Adam stated jokingly, they all laughed a little.

"I try reasoning with that by saying that it's not murder, it's justice for the thousands who he's shown no mercy to." Harry said, "It's the only way I can make it seem less criminal."

"That's really adult of you." Adam stated.

"Yeah, well. I had to grow up a little earlier than most." Harry said sadly, he unconsciously fingered the leather band on his wrist that Ginny had made him.

"Um…." Sara murmured. "What are the teachers like?" She asked, successfully changing the subject.

"I told you about the evil professor, he's called Snape and he teaches potions." Harry told her, "You'll never know whom the new DADA professor will be until you get to school. McGonnagal, the head of Gryffindor, teaches Transfiguration. Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw, teaches charms, he's this _really _short and stumpy guy and Spout is the head of Hufflepuff and she teaches herbology."

"Potions?" Adam asked.

"It's a little like chemistry according to Hermione, one of my best friends." Harry immediately told him.

"Who're your other friends? What're they like?" Sara asked quickly.

"Well Hermione, she's really smart and _always_ solves a puzzle. If we're in trouble she's normally the one to find a logical way out.

There's Ron, one of my dorm mates. He was the first wizard friend I made who was my age. He's from a good pure-blooded family, the Weasley's, his brothers are the twins you met in their joke shop, their all red heads too." Harry explained to Sara. "Another friend is Neville, and he's the other boy who could've been chosen for the prophecy, but Voldemort chose me. You saw him in Diagon Alley when we brought ice creams.

Then there's Ginny, she's going into her fifth year." Harry explained, he looked down at his leather band and toyed with it.

"They're your best friends?" Sara asked, Harry nodded and looked up.

"I have a few other friends, but they don't put up with me like Hermione and Ron do." Harry deadpanned.

"Is it okay to be friends with people in other houses?" Sara asked, Harry nodded.

"Sure, I have a few in other houses, I was even dating a girl in another house last year, though it got a little difficult come time of the Quidditch match against her, she's Ravenclaw's seeker." Harry explained.

"Always hard playing against someone you like." Karla said with a grin, Harry laughed.

"Yeah, well add that experience to a two year crush beforehand, and you have yourself a dilemma." He replied, they all laughed at that.

"I can't wait to watch a Quidditch match." Sara stated with a grin, Harry smirked.

"I'd only ever watched one before my last school year, and that was a professional one." He stated. "It was quite good, seeker got a bludger to the nose."

"How big are bludgers?" Karla asked, Harry held his hands up to show her. "Ouch."

"They're metal also." Harry added.

"Double ouch." Sara muttered. "Wait, did you quit the team last year then?"

"Huh?" Harry asked, "Oh, no. I got a lifelong ban." Harry muttered ashamedly.

"Why?" Sara asked incredulously.

"Bad teacher. Me and the twins had a fight with someone and she saw it, gave me and the twins lifelong bans." Harry explained briefly. "Wait a minute, I got Quidditch captain this year." Harry muttered in thought. "That must mean the ban is off or something."

"Quidditch captain? That's good, right?" Sara asked, Harry nodded with a large smile.

"I think my ban was lifted." He stated. "Wicked." He added in a mutter with a huge grin.

"What position on the team is best?" Adam asked curiously, he always liked learning about new sports (even though he knew of most of them).

"Depends." Harry replied. "I'm best playing seeker, though being chaser must be fun." Harry pondered.

"Is what that girl said true?" Sara asked Harry, who turned to her with a confused expression. "That girl from the ice cream parlour, she said you couldn't be on the team until second year."

"Oh. Cho." Harry said, "Yeah, though I got on the team in my first year."

"Really?" Sara asked, Harry nodded.

"Hmmm, but you wouldn't have any chance, no offence or anything." Harry added at her look, "I was lucky that I made the team instead of being expelled."

"Expelled?" Sara asked worriedly, Harry smirked.

"Yeah, the amount of times I should've been expelled…" He muttered, "That was the only time I actually done something wrong on purpose." He added with a grin, he remembered his adventures with a grin.

"Cho?" Karla muttered she looked at Harry who looked quizzically at her, "It means butterfly in Japanese I think. Just a random fact."

"I never knew that." Harry said thoughtfully, it was definitely a random fact but it was an interesting one at least.

They carried on talking about the school in general for the rest of the night and soon, its time for Harry to go home.

"Thanks for having me." Harry said to them sincerely.

"It was no problem." Karla said with a smile, "Maybe you could come again, I'm sure that Sara wouldn't mind it." She suggested, Sara looked happier all of a sudden.

"Yeah Harry! Come again." She agreed, Harry laughed.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind." He stated with a massive grin.

"How about next Friday?" Karla asked.

"Aren't we meant to be going out with the Watson's then?" Adam asked, coming back down the stairs from where he had put Dawn to bed a little while earlier.

"We can't find a babysitter Love, so we can't go." Karla said absentmindedly.

"I'll baby-sit for you." Harry offered. "I only live round the corner and I'm sure my relatives wouldn't mind to get rid of me for a night." He stated with a little bitterness towards them.

"Oh no Harry, we couldn't ask that of you." Karla stated, Harry waved his hand as if to swipe the last comment away.

"I don't mind, I've not got much to do at the moment anyways, I done all my summer homework in the first week and anything's better than having to sit in that dingy room that the Dursley's gave to me all day." He told them. "I'd be happy to baby-sit." Adam and Karla looked thoughtful.

"Please Mummy, please Daddy." Sara begged, she used the puppy-dog eyes with her parents.

"Well, I suppose we could." Adam said carefully, his daughter exclaimed _"Yes!"_ whilst Harry laughed silently at her. "We'll see you at seven next Friday?" Harry nodded.

"Sure, see you then." He waved goodbye and left the comforting warmth of the kind families home.

Harry walked home happily and collapsed on his small bed the minute he reached his room. Some people in this town liked him and accepted him for who he was, not just because he was the-bloody-boy-who-bloody-lived.

Harry felt something in his pocket poke him in the side. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the envelope he had gotten whilst at the White's. He slowly opened the envelope again and scanned the contents of it for a second time as if not believing it.

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_It has come to our knowledge that your Godfather, Sirius Black, has recently died and has left some things in his will to you._

_One Sirius Black has left you:_

_The entirety of his Gringotts vault_

_His Californian estate_

_The keys to said estate are included with your owl and the contents of his vault have been added to yours._

_Thank you for your time,_

_Chief Goblin Karmef_

A tear fell from Harry's eye and slipped slowly down his dry cheek. This made it all seem more real. Sirius was dead.

Harry carefully put the letter in a small box in his trunk and placed the house key in there also. No use carrying a Californian house key around was there? After he had sorted those out, he got a book from his trunk and read until he fell asleep, his dreams filled with images of Sirius; falling through the veil on that fateful day.

Harry got to the White's house at ten to seven the next Friday, he knocked on the door and Karla opened it with Dawn, who was half asleep in her arms.

"Evening Harry." She greeted happily, she led him into the living room, where Sara sat reading one of her school books whilst curled up on 'Her' small one-seater.

"Hi Sara." Harry greeted, Sara ignored him as she continued to read her book.

"Sara." Karla snapped, the shocked girl looked up at her mother, then her gaze turned to Harry.

"Oh, hiya Harry." She greeted with a smile whilst placing a bookmark in her book and then put it on the end table next to a creamy coloured lamp.

"Love, are you ready to go yet?" Adam asked as he came in the room, Karla nodded.

"Alright, Harry, the emergency numbers are by the phone, there's food in the fridge, Dawn will probably fall to sleep sometime soon, though her nap was only a few hours ago, and Sara should be in bed by nine-thirty." Karla told Harry, who nodded.

"Mum! Nine-thirty?" Sara whined.

"Ten, no later." Adam reasoned, Sara nodded happily. "We'll see you later then."

"Bye bye." Sara said to her parents, giving them each a hug.

"Be good." Karla warned her eldest daughter, who rolled her eyes.

"Yes Mum." Sara muttered.

"And-"

"Let's leave now Honey." Adam said, guiding Karla out of the door before she could start fussing even more.

The front door closed with a small bang and Sara turned to Harry with a mischievous grin.

"Now we can do whatever we like." She stated, Harry laughed slightly and collapsed into the large, three-seater leather settee with Dawn in his arms, the little girl giggled slightly.

"Yeah, collapse and fall to sleep." Harry replied, he shifted around until he was comfortable and then shifted Dawn a little. Sara flopped onto the settee next to him.

"What sort of trouble do you get into at Hogwarts then?" She asked, Harry grinned.

"Well, _I_ get into lots of trouble with my friends. We're like trouble magnets." He stated, Sara giggled. "Last year was fun, it was the twins last year and they literally left with a bang…" Harry explained more of what happened to the girl who listened attentively, he told her about the DA and more about his friends.

They were interrupted in their new conversation on DADA and various magical creatures by an owl tapping at the window; groaning, Harry got up and opened it.

As soon as Harry received the letter from it, the owl flew off. The seal of the envelope was that of the Magical Department of Education, Harry fell back onto the sofa and stared at the envelope.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Sara asked, her little sister was sleeping soundly in her lap.

"It's my exam results." Harry replied nervously.

"Can I open it?" Sara asked, Harry nodded and wordlessly passed the envelope to the raven-haired girl. She ripped the seal off and read the letter to herself. "You done terribly!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Harry asked incredulously.

"You've got 'O's and 'E's!" Sara exclaimed, "Wait, you have an 'A' in Divination and Herbology." She added. "That's alright."

"I've gotten 'O's and 'E's?" Harry asked, Sara nodded and Harry took the paper away from her.

_Harry James Potter's OWL results:_

_Care of Magical Creatures – O_

_Astronomy - EE_

_DADA - O_

_Potions - EE_

_Divination – A_

_Transfiguration - EE_

_Charms - EE_

_Herbology – A_

"I've passed every subject!" Harry exclaimed, Sara looked confused.

"You've _passed_?" She asked, "But you got 'O's and 'E's!"

"'O's mean 'Outstanding'." Harry explained, "And 'E's mean 'Exceeds Expectations'. They are the highest marks you can get."

"What's with the 'A' then?" Sara asked curiously, Harry smirked.

"Acceptable." He told her, "Divination is what is known as a 'Bird Course', you can just fly through it if you have decent lies for the professor."

"Lies?" Sara asked, Harry nodded in reply.

"There are actually two professors for it now, Professor Trelawny is the one you can lie too, then there's Firenze, a centaur." Harry explained.

"Half-horse half-human?" Sara asked.

"Yeah." Harry affirmed, he realised there was another piece of paper underneath the results, he took it and read it over. "It says I have till middle of August to organise my NEWT classes."

"Well that's alright." Sara said, Harry nodded.

"Hmm," He murmured in agreement. "I know I need DADA, Potions, Charms and Transfiguration to become an auror, but this ADADA option looks alright."

"What's ADADA?" Sara asked, reading over his shoulder.

"Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts." Harry informed her. "It looks alright." He added, the table had three numbered columns and lettered rows, for each lettered row you had to pick one of the three cells, each with a subject in it.

"What're you picking?" Sara asked curiously.

"I'm not sure." Harry stated. He looked at the options briefly again. In row A, the options to choose from were DADA, Potions or Transfiguration; in row B they were History of Magic, ADADA and Charms; in row C they were Herbology, Divination and Transfiguration; in row D they were DADA, Arithmancy and Charms; in row E they were Transfiguration, CoMC and Charms; and in row F they were Charms, Runes and Herbology. "I think I know what I want already." Harry stated, he grabbed a pen from the coffee table and circled Potions, ADADA, Transfiguration, Charms, CoMC and Herbology with some difficulty, he was used to using quills and ink, not ballpoint pens.

"Shouldn't you think about it?" Sara asked, Harry shrugged at her suggestion.

"I need the first four subjects, and I like CoMC and Herbology, so I'll just send it off to the Headmaster with Hedwig when I get back to the Dursley's.

"Hedwig?" Sara inquired.

"My owl." Harry told her, "She was my first birthday present."

"You got an owl for you birthday when you were a baby?" Sara asked incredulously, Harry shook his head.

"No, I got an owl for my eleventh birthday." Harry replied nonchalantly.

"You- What- I mean-" Sara shook her head and started her jumbled sentence again. "You never got presents for your birthday until you were eleven?"

"Nope, Hagrid brought me a birthday cake _and_ a present." Harry stated with happiness, "But my friends send me gifts every year now."

"Didn't you have friends when you were younger?" Sara asked quietly, Harry shook his head.

"No." He replied, "But my friends now are important to me for that reason."

"Oh." Sara muttered.

"It's nine." Harry stated, glancing at his watch. "I'll go get Dawn settled in bed." He added, picking the tiny girl up. He went upstairs with the sleeping toddler lying comfortably in his grip. He approached the first room and hoped it was Dawn's, opening the door to a Mexican style room with a double bed, he closed it and went to the next door, the room inside was obviously Sara's room, it was yellow, pink and green that matched the curtains and bedspread which both sported a tulip pattern. The third room he entered was a baby blue on the bottom of the wall, then a pink above the cute flowery border; Harry placed Dawn in her little toddler bed before going back downstairs. He fell onto the sofa next to Sara, who was now watching some TV show.

"Did she wake up?" Sara asked, Harry shook his head.

"No, but I'm tired." He added, stifling a yawn. Sara just turned the TV back on and snuggled up in her settee to watch it, Harry leaned back comfortably and just let his eyes droop, soon, both of them were fast asleep.

Soon after they had fallen asleep, Karla and Adam came home; they awoke Harry and then Adam drove him back home to the Dursley's before paying him and leaving, Harry stumbled up to the door and crept up to his room so that he could collapse on his bed and wait for morning.

**AN: The Guardian Angel comment at the beginning is sort of reflecting how Harry feels about Sara. You'll understand a lot more as the story progresses but Sara is one person who he immediately trusts for some unknown reason that not even I know! I just thought I'd explain that as Sara plays an important part in this story and the sequels I have planned for it.**

**I thank those two lovely reviewers! This story is going to be quite long and I'm aiming to have 100,000 words in this story! I tried it with PMP but it didn't work L. But review for me! It makes me feel a little more motivated!**


	4. Chapter 4 Deaths, Party and Attacks

**AN: Ok, I know this has a weird chapter title but I am weird :p It really does involve all of those.**

**Chapter 4 – Deaths, Party and Attacks**

"These mysterious attacks are the biggest mystery English Police have faced in a long while and while Special Investigates claim they have the situation under control, it seems that they as much in the blue to the reason behind why these random attacks are being carried out all over the country. Are these attacks related? If so, why are people going insane, why are people disappearing and more importantly, why are people dieing? This reporter is determined to find out."

"Thank you for that interesting report-" Vernon Dursley turned the TV off after that.

"Ruddy investigators, don't have a clue what they're doing." He muttered.

"No, they don't." Harry added under his breath.

"What was that?" Vernon asked menacingly.

"Nothing Uncle Vernon." Harry replied in the monotone voice that h always used with Vernon.

"Good." Vernon stated. Harry rolled his eyes and quickly finished his breakfast so he could get ready for the day he would spend at the White's house.

The White's were holding a family summer party and had invited Harry along also, he was going to politely decline at first, but who could resist an eleven year olds adorable cinnamon brown puppy-dog eyes? Come to think of it though, he was glad that he had agreed to go, it should be fun.

"I'm heading for the White's house now, don't expect me back until late." Harry stated as he deposited his plate and cutlery in the sink before he headed out.

Harry walked slowly round to the White's nice little house, the party wasn't to start until two that afternoon, but Harry had offered to go early and look after the girls and help them prepare everything for the party.

Harry walked up to the white house and knocked on the door tentatively and waited for Adam, who was walking towards the door with a bounce in his step.

"Morning Harry." The man greeted happily with a large grin.

"Morning Adam." Harry replied cheerfully, "What can I do then?" He asked as he was led through the house and into the massive garden. The first thing Harry noticed was the inflating bugs-life bouncy castle and the large paddling pool that was being filled slowly, it had about three hoses inside of it. The brick barbecue in the corner had bags of coal surrounding it and chairs were placed strategically around the large space along with a few picnic tables.

"How about you just stop the girls going on the bouncy castle until it's fully blown up?" Kayla asked Harry, who was watching Dawn try to jump on the half blown up bouncy castle, and they all laughed slightly when she realised that she was stuck.

"Where's Sara?" Harry asked as he picked Dawn up from her rubber prison.

"She's hiding her things." Karla told him nonchalantly, Harry looked confused.

"_Why_ would she be hiding her things?" He asked incredulously.

"Because my cousins are idiots." Sara said from her position by the door.

"Sara." Karla reprimanded, though you could tell she really didn't care about what Sara had said, "Don't speak about them like that."

"But they are!" Sara exclaimed, "Jimmy broke my jewellery box last year, Sam snapped my special pencil that Nanny got me the year before that, Beth-"

"I get it!" Karla stated, "I'll tell them to leave your things alone."

"Oh and like they'd listen." Sara muttered, "Ooh! Half full bouncy castle!" She exclaimed and took off at a run for it. The small girl jumped and threw herself into the middle part of it, where she just sunk.

"Sara! I've already told Dawn she's not meant to go on there! And what do you go and do?" Karla shouted, Harry sniggered and Dawn covered her ears cutely for some unknown reason (which was probably because of her mothers shouting).

"But Mum! It's so fun! I'm just sinking!" Sara exclaimed happily, Karla looked persistently annoyed now.

"Karla, just leave her, as long as she stays out of the way she's fine." Adam said, ready to calm down his hotheaded wife.

"But-"

"Just leave her." Adam said, gently pulling on Karla's elbow to take her inside. "Feel free to join Sara." He added quietly to Harry with a grin, Harry laughed and looked at Dawn who was sitting comfortably on his hip.

"Wanna join your sister?" He asked, Dawn nodded excitedly. "Ok then." Harry added, he then ran for the bouncy castle and threw himself onto it with Dawn, who screamed happily. They bounced slightly as the bouncy castle filled with air.

"Hi Harry!" Sara exclaimed, she got up and started bouncing around, making Harry and Dawn bounce also.

"Hey Sara." Harry said with an impish grin, he tried to get up but Sara bounced extra hard and he fell back down and dropped Dawn onto her bum, the infant giggled and tried to stand also, but found herself falling as she tried it.

Harry eventually got up and started bouncing, making Dawn go higher and higher each time either him or Sara jumped.

"Harry, could you come and help me move this table? Karla can't lift it." Adam called from the house.

"Sure, be right there." Harry called back, Sara bounced onto her bum and collapsed onto the rubber castle, "Be right back." Harry said, Sara waved her arm to acknowledge he said something whilst Harry clambered off of the bouncy castle and then walked back to the house.

He went into the dining room and saw Adam and Karla attempting to move the dining table to the side of the room. Harry went over and helped push it against the far wall.

"Thanks." Adam said with grin.

"No problem." Harry replied. "Need any help getting food onto the table?"

"Sure, I wouldn't mind that." Karla said with a smile as she led Harry into the kitchen where there were plates and bowls filled with food and covered with plastic sheets. "Just take it out onto the table, biggest plates at the back with the bowls and the smaller plates go at the front.

They spent the next half an hour getting the food ready before the first of the guests arrived. Adam went to open the door and Harry sat on the bouncy castle with the girls, telling them some stories of his previous years at Hogwarts.

Sara looked over Harry's shoulder and jumped up.

"Auntie Jane!" She exclaimed, jumping off of the bouncy castle and then she ran over and hugged the tall, beautiful woman with ginger curls. Even more stunning was the young woman standing next to her, she wore a pair of jeans with a long black skirt over the top of it and she wore a pretty blue top that matched her sky blue eyes, she had dark blonde curls that cascaded down her perfectly straight back.

Harry got up and went over to them.

"Hi, I'm Harry." He greeted, he felt mesmerized by the girls eyes as he held out his hand to her. She smiled and shook his hand gently.

"Charlene." She replied. "You wouldn't be some brother of Sara's that went missing or something would you?" She asked with amusement as she looked at the similarities between her cousin and Harry.

"Not that I know of, though she might as well be my sister." Harry stated with a grin, he dropped Charlene's perfectly manicured hand and let his own fall to his side.

"Harry, you didn't tell me what happened to Hermione!" Sara complained, Harry turned to her with a grin.

"Hermione was fine after she woke up." Harry stated.

"Well how did she wake up then smartass?" Sara asked incredulously.

"Sara!" Karla reprimanded.

"She was fed the stew of mandrake whilst she lay in her petrified state." Harry said in a put on voice.

"Mandrake?" Sara asked incredulously.

"Yeah, they're these plants, but the roots look like _really_ ugly babies and as they grow older, their cry can kill you." Harry said menacingly, Sara giggled.

"You _cannot_ tell spooky stories." She stated, Harry pouted.

"I thought I could." He stated indignantly, causing the little raven-haired girl to giggle even more and Charlene also giggled a bit. A warm feeling spread over Harry at the sound of Charlene's melody-like giggles. _'No! Don't think like that!' _Harry told himself, _'She's just a girl, just a beautiful, body of a supermodel sexy and gor-'_

"Are you alright Harry?" Charlene asked curiously, Harry nodded slightly, knowing his voice would go a bit funny if he tried to speak.

The next few hours were torture for Harry, who found that he was spending all of his time with Charlene and was trying to keep the blood from rushing to the wrong part of his body, not meaning his brain.

He had discovered in his short amount of time with her that she was a teen model, was just sixteen and had a love for animals, especially wolves.

The pair went inside at around three to grab a bite to eat. Harry was introduced to even more family and was offered a beer from an old woman with yellowing teeth and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, he politely declined and got a range of food from the table before retreating to the small, out of the way corner bench that he and Charlene had resided too. Charlene already had her plate sitting on her lap and flashed him a one in a million smile as he sat back down.

"So, I heard you go to the boarding school that Sara will be going to this year, is it any good?" She asked, Harry nodded and sucked the chicken sauce from his fingers before answering.

"It's great, I love it there and I'm sure that Sara will too." He replied.

"Cool, I normally get private tutoring because I'd I miss a lot of time of the school year because of my modelling." Charlene explained.

"Is it fun modelling?" Harry asked, Charlene tilted her head in thought.

"Sometimes, I went on a tour with a woman last year, just a small one of England, but it was hard as we had to be up early to travel and I had to share rooms with three or four other models, they were adults though and it was a nightmare, the amount of lipstick and makeup scattered around." Charlene rolled her eyes and Harry chuckled slightly, "It was fun but very exhausting."

"Hmm, I think modelling would be bad for me then." Harry said in a joking way.

"Harreee!" Dawn screamed, the tiny girl came running around the corner. "Come play on the cast-el!" Harry laughed.

"I'm eating Dawn!" He exclaimed.

"Come play on the cast-el!" She demanded, which made Harry laugh even more.

"Okay okay! I'm coming." He replied, Harry put his half finished lunch down and picked up Dawn, he then ran over to the castle with her and jumped on again.

"Hiya Harry!" Sara exclaimed happily as she bounced over to him and her sister, "Come to join us?"

"Yep." Harry replied with smirk as he stood and jumped so hard that Sara fell over.

"Hey!" The girl exclaimed.

"What?" Harry asked innocently, hearing laughter behind him, he turned and saw Charlene cautiously climb onto the bouncy castle.

"Don't knock me over… please." She begged, Harry shook his head with a laugh.

"Sure, I won't." He replied, "On purpose." Charlene shot him an evil look as he laughed again. One of the little boys jumped onto the bouncy castle soaking wet, having just jumped on after being in the paddling pool.

"Ben!" A woman who Harry presumed to be his mother shouted at him, "Get off of there this instant!" The little boy reluctantly climbed back down and accepted the towel from his mother so that he could get dry first. The other kids pointed and laughed at him, 'Ben's' only response was to stick his tongue out in return.

"Hey, you reckon we could get some adults on here?" Charlene whispered to Harry, who had fallen into the corner and stayed there.

"No, they wouldn't come on." Harry replied, glancing at the numerous adults who were sitting around the garden.

"Hey kids, go get Auntie Kate so she can come on here!" Charlene called, the kids all screamed and ran for the house to get the victim. "Kate comes on the bouncy castle every year, she normally gets some of the other adults on too." Charlene explained. A happy looking rounded woman with long black hair came over and carefully stumbled onto the bouncy castle, two wide men who looked like they wanted a laugh came on also, all three were grinning like maniacs.

"Lets all jump!" The woman who Harry guessed was Kate exclaimed, the ten or so kids and three large adults jumped on the castle, causing both Harry and Charlene to stumble as they tried to stand up. Leaning on the wall, Harry managed to stand and started bouncing around also.

A bit later on, the two men and Kate collapsed into one corner of the bouncy castle, which made the corner go down quite a bit so that the other end was in the air. The kids screamed with delight and all charged for the corner. Harry and Charlene were the only two not sitting in the corner.

"C'mon C! Get down here!" Kate called, Charlene giggled and pulled Harry over; they sat down and let the kids jump on them also. The castle started tipping slightly and the three adults thought it was a good idea to lean backwards, so soon enough, the bouncy castle was on its side and all of the kids were laughing. Harry laughed also and saw a flash of a camera go off in front of the bouncy castle.

"How are we meant to get up?" Charlene asked.

"Get the kids off first." The largest of the men instructed with a chuckle.

They soon had all of the kids on the grass with the other adult's help, now it was just the three adults, Harry and Charlene stuck on the sideways bouncy castle.

"How about Harry and Charlene try to get off first?" Karla asked with a slight giggle as she took another photo. Harry rolled over and tried to get off of the castle, but it seemed to have other ideas as he fell straight back down whilst laughing his head off. Charlene carefully climbed out somehow and held her hand to Harry, who took it in a firm grip and helped get himself out.

As the rest of the party were thinking of ways to get the three adults from the fallen bouncy castle, Harry and Charlene went back behind the corner, still laughing.

"Thanks." Harry said with a grin, Charlene smiled back and giggled again.

"It was no problem." She replied softly. They stared into each other's eyes and it was then that Harry realised how close they were standing. He blushed slightly and broke eye contact as he went to move back, but Charlene seemed to have other ideas and grabbed his arm lightly at the wrist, he looked back into her soft, sky blue depths and leant down slowly. She closed her eyes as they leaned closer and Harry closed his also as he closed the gap between their mouths.

The kiss was soft and sweet, Charlene wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and played with the hair at the back of his neck, Harry's arms snaked around her waist as he ran his hands over her lower back and bum.

They came out of the kiss moments later, both of their cheeks tinged red for lack of air and both of them smiling.

"I liked that." Charlene said softly, Harry pecked her on the lips again.

"Yeah, me too." He replied quietly. Charlene reached up and traced his scar with her finger softly, she looked a little confused. "What is it?" Harry asked concernedly, Charlene took her arm down and looked into his eyes.

"You remind me of somebody, it's like I've met you before, but don't know who you are, if you get me." Charlene explained softly.

"Yeah, I get you." Harry replied, they separated and sat down on the bench.

They sat in silence for a while.

"I'm going to boarding school this year." Charlene stated.

"Really?" Harry asked, Charlene nodded.

"I was invited to an exclusive one when I was eleven, but my Mum said that I shouldn't go because of the child modelling thing and now I've decided that I want to get qualifications." She explained.

"Well it's a good idea to get them." Harry stated.

"I know, but it's going to be weird going to boarding school." Charlene said with a small smile, "I'm used to travelling around."

"Oh well, you'll get used to it." Harry said, "The shared shower room and everything else that comes with four dorm-mates."

"You have four?" Charlene asked, Harry nodded. "And you sleep there every night?" Harry nodded again, "What if one of them snores?" She asked incredulously, this made Harry laugh again.

"One of them does, but it's nothing, my uncle snored so loud that I hear it from my room at the house I stay in over summer." Harry said with a grin, "I swear that I can still hear him whilst I'm lying in my warm bed in Scotland." He added, which made them both laugh.

"Why do you live with your uncle?" Charlene asked carefully, not sure if it was a sensitive subject. Harry looked down.

"My parents died." He said quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Charlene apologised.

"Don't be, they died when I was about one, I hardly remember them." Harry replied. "Anyway, are you naturally blond? Because you're smarter then how blonds are stereotyped." Charlene shook her head with an amused smile.

"No, I've got auburn hair normally, I just dye it all the time." She told him with a grin.

"Oh." Harry muttered.

"Speaking of hair, yours looks cool." Charlene stated, looking up at Harry's spikes. "Looks wicked actually." Harry grinned.

"Thanks." He replied, "I like yours too."

They sat talking for ages about anything and everything. They were both having the times of their lives just sitting there talking to one another.

"Charlene?" Someone called; Charlene's mother came around the corner.

"Yeah Mum?" Charlene asked.

"We have to head home now." Her mum told Charlene.

"What? Why?" Charlene asked a little downheartedly.

"Because we live on the other side of London and have to be back before ten so that we don't miss that important phone call." Her mum said to her, "Say your goodbyes and meet me in the car." The woman said with a nod at Harry before she left. The two teens stood.

"Here," Charlene took out a pen from her pocket and scribbled a number on his hand. "Call me, that's my mobile, and that's my home phone number." She said with a smile, "Maybe we could meet up a Christmas if you're coming back home."

"Yeah, maybe." Harry replied. "I'll be seeing you then." He said quietly, Charlene looked down to the floor.

"Yeah… then I had better go." She muttered before turning to leave.

"Charlene, wait." Harry said immediately and got a grip on her arm, Charlene turned around and was surprised when her lips met his in a passionate kiss. Harry wrapped his arms around her waist as Charlene once again placed her arms delicately around his neck again. Charlene opened her mouth slightly and let Harry slip his tongue into her mouth, leaving him to explore.

They came out moments later with flushed looks, Harry leant his forehead down so that it was touching Charlene's forehead.

"That wasn't a goodbye kiss, it was an I'll-see-you-soon one." Harry said with an impish grin, Charlene smiled shyly and looked down before pecking him on the lips and removing her arms from him.

"I'll see you soon then." She said softly, "Call me."

Harry let her go and held up his hand that had the numbers on. "I will." He replied as he watched her walk away.

The party went a little too slow for Harry's liking after that and he left at eleven, hitching a ride with Adam as he was driving his big brother and wife with their kids.

When Harry finally got up to his room, he noticed that he had an owl, Pigwidgeon to be exact. Harry hesitantly opened the letter as he fell down onto his bed to read it.

_Hey Harry,_

_How are you?_ This was written in Hermione's neat calligraphy.

_Never mind that! The Cannons are in the lead in the league! This is so wicked! _ Harry laughed as he read Ron's untidy scrawl. _So mate, how are you doing? Hermione doesn't know how to just ease into the topic of conversation._

_Oh gee, thanks Ron. Harry, we wondered if you wanted to be picked up to be taken to the station? If you do, just reply to this owl, if not, then please just reply anyway! If you don't, then we understand and will see you at the station on the first._

_With love, Hermione and Ron_

_P.S. Ron likes to comment that he doesn't send this with love as it sounds 'Gay'. Daft twit. Love HERMIONE, then._

Harry laughed at his best friends attitude, even from the letter he could tell that they'd make a good couple. It was funny that they hadn't realised this themselves yet, even after five whole years.

Harry thought of writing back to them, but found himself too tired, so he changed into a pair of boxers and climbed into bed, the letter falling to the floor forgotten as Pig flew off into the night.

Harry looked around, _'This is the ministry'_ He thought to himself, his scar was prickling slightly, he looked around at the amounts of aurors stationed at every corner, then Harry noticed some Order members scattered about, Tonks was in her auror gear, talking happily to Charlie Weasley and Kingsley Shaklebolt was whistling to himself. Harry approached Charlie and Tonks.

"Hey Charlie, Tonks, how did I get here?" Harry asked, the two continued talking as though they hadn't heard anything.

"So after this you better be taking me out somewhere nice, I'm dead bored!" Tonks exclaimed, Charlie chuckled.

"Yeah, well maybe next time you shouldn't cancel out our date, I had a great place in mind." Charlie replied, Harry looked shocked. Tonks and Charlie? Since when?

"Well I'm sorry." Tonks replied with a pout. "But it's not my fault I got called in for duty."

"Yeah, well-" Charlie's sentence was cut short by an alarm that shrieked through the building, Tonks and the other aurors looked panicked. "What's that?" Charlie shouted over the noise, clamping his hands tightly over his ears.

"Death Eaters!" Tonks exclaimed, Harry stood completely still, that was until his scar exploded with pain.

"Tonks!" Harry shouted, "Voldemort! He's here!" As Harry said that, lots men and women in black robes charged in, leaving the aurors outnumbered at least five to one. Harry noted that more ministry members were flooding into the room also fro different areas of the building.

Behind the Death Eaters, Voldemort came waltzing in. Curses flew and he stood there laughing. Harry glared heatedly at the snake-man, wishing that he would just shrivel and melt.

"Look Potter! Look at this mayhem!" Voldemort exclaimed, he sounded delighted, which made Harry feel sick to his stomach. He watched in horror as aurors were murdered, Tonks and Charlie were working together against at least eight Death Eaters.

"Tonks! Behind you!" Harry screamed, he watched as Tonks turned and was hit with a blood red ray, she went flying back into the wall behind her with a scream.

"Tonks!" Harry heard Charlie's pained shout as he left the dream abruptly.

Tonks was talking to Charlie about there so many failed dates. They had been out, but since Voldemort's public return, it had been hard to catch a day when neither of them were busy and when they could find an excuse to be out of the house, as nobody knew of their 'budding' relationship as of yet.

"So after this you better be taking me out somewhere, I'm dead bored!" Tonks exclaimed, Charlie chuckled at her _'Ooh, he's got such a sexy laugh.'_ She thought.

"Yeah, well maybe next time you shouldn't cancel out our date, I had a great place in mind." Charlie replied.

"Well I'm sorry." Tonks replied with a pout. "But it's not my fault I got called in for duty." _'No, it was damn Fudge's, I swear he hates me.'_ She added to herself.

"Yeah, well-" Charlie's sentence was cut short by an alarm that shrieked through the building. _'Oh crud!'_ Tonks thought to herself in panic as she looked around wildly. "What's that?" Charlie shouted over the noise.

"Death Eaters!" Tonks exclaimed, to be completely honest, she didn't think that she was ready for another battle; she had barely just gotten over the last one.

_"Voldemort! He's here!"_ Tonks shook her head; she could've sworn that sounded like Harry, though she didn't have time to worry about that now, the numerous Death Eaters were swarming into the place as more ministry members and aurors charged into the room, wands up and ready to fight for their ministry… and their lives. It may have been late, but lots of ministry workers worked late and preferred to stay so that they could protect the place (or to call in backups). At the moment, each of them was outnumbered by at least five to one still.

Tonks immediately got into the fray, fighting with Charlie at her side.

"Look Potter! Look at this mayhem!" Voldemort exclaimed, he sounded so ecstatic and it made Tonks feel really angry, he had killed her Dad; she would make him pay if she could get rid of these Death Eaters to start with.

She saw one of her fellow aurors hit the ground with a lifeless look of torture on their face and her vision blurred terribly, but she carried on fighting.

_"Tonks! Behind you!"_ It was the voice again, Tonks spun around and her eyes widened as she saw the blood red bolt whizzing towards her, then she saw the person under the hood, grinning maliciously, her aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. The red beam hit her and send her flying, on impact it broke several of her ribs, then she hit the wall and hit her head, blacking out from the hit.

Harry shot up in his bed and looked around, he remembered that he was wearing his contacts after he had fumbled around trying to find his glasses then realised his vision was clear.

Harry bolted to his desk on the opposite side of the room and grabbed the only quill and parchment he could find, a piece of his potions work… actually, most of it.

_Professor, there's an attack at the ministry and Tonks is hurt. Get there soon, H.P_

Harry summoned his owl to him.

"Get to Dumbledore quickly girl." He ordered, the owl chirped and flew off quickly.

Hedwig landed on the kitchen table of Grimmauld Place, where most of the Order and Weasley's were sitting, waiting for the news of who on their side had been injured. Hermione shrieked in shock as the owl flew over her but quickly calmed and untied the note. Frowning as it was done on his summer work, Hermione read Harry's note to everybody.

"'_Professor, there's an attack at the ministry and Tonks is hurt. Get there soon, H.P'_ How did he know about Tonks?" Hermione queried, "And couldn't he have at _least_ written it on something besides his potions essay?"

"His potions essay?" Ron asked with a devious smile, Hermione scowled at him.

"You aren't taking potions next year you bluming dolt." She stated, Ron's grin grew even wider.

"Ha! Finally! I could give it up!" He exclaimed, Snape glared at Ron but said nothing and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You are an idiot." She said pompously.

"Just because your taking NEWT level potions." Ron grumbled.

"You're the one who wanted to become an auror!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Lets just go back to our original topic?" Bill asked to break up the impending fight, "How did Harry know that Tonks was hurt?"

"Because he saw it through Voldemort." Came a wise voice behind them, they turned to see Dumbledore standing in the doorway with Kingsley and Charlie, who both looked worse for wear.

"Charlie? What happened to you?" Molly asked, concerned as to why her son was wearing new trousers that actually looked new that morning and not the trousers he wore now that had rips and cuts.

"I was at the Ministry." Charlie stated.

"The Ministry?" Emmeline Vance enquired, "How did you get in? We found that we couldn't."

"He didn't get in that way, he was already inside of the building." Kingsley stated with an annoyed glance at Charlie.

"Why?" Ginny asked curiously.

"I was getting some paper work done." Charlie stated with a small blush, Kingsley rolled his eyes and Dumbledore smiled knowingly.

"Paper work?" Fred asked with a smirk.

"Or a fit girl was working so you bugged her?" George finished.

"More likely the second one with Charlie." Bill stated with a grin as the Weasley brother's and sister all looked to Charlie for confirmation.

"Hmm, I'd say the second one."

"Ginny." Charlie said warningly, Ginny smiled brightly at him.

"But then, who could've been on watch this evening?" She asked with a false look of thought.

"Don't you bloody dare Ginny." Charlie demanded.

"What do I get?" Ginny asked, Charlie looked exasperated.

"I just got that damn book you wanted!" He exclaimed.

"Charlie and-" Ginny's childish rhyme was cut short.

"What do you want?" He second eldest brother asked with a sigh, causing the youngest Weasley sibling to grin happily.

"Well, you'll just have to see about that." She stated.

"Does Ginny know who your flirting with?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yep, but I won't tell unless he doesn't do what I want." Ginny said with an impish grin which made all of the others laugh (maybe except for Snape and some of the meaner members of the Order).

"So what about Tonks?" Hermione asked sombrely after they had calmed down.

"She's alright now, resting at Mungo's for observation." Charlie told them all.

"How long for?" Ginny asked worriedly, now more concerned for her friend who was like an elder sister to her.

"A few weeks, she was hurt pretty badly and has lost a lot of blood, she was hit by this weird curse that nobody knows of, so they're going to research it a little." Charlie explained.

"Oh, poor Tonks." Hermione muttered. "We had better write Harry back then." She added and the teens left the room as a brief Order meeting was called.


	5. Chapter 5 Travel to Hogwarts and the Ne...

Chapter 5 – Travel to Hogwarts and the New Girl 

For the past two weeks, Harry had called Charlene up every evening at six and they talked for at least an hour before Harry was thrown off of the phone. Harry presumed that his Aunt and Uncle were timing it, but never really bothered to ask much due to the fact that it was a miracle that they had let him use the phone in the first place.

Anyways, at this precise moment, Harry was hauling his trunk downstairs so that he could wait for the White's, who were going to be taking him to the train station to catch the train to Hogwarts.

When the doorbell went Harry quickly shot up from his seat on the lower stairs and opened the door, pulling his trunk out of it with great difficulty.

"I'm going now." He shouted up the stairs, no one answered so Harry quickly scribbled down a note and left it on the side table before proceeding to pull his trunk further out of the door and onto the drive.

"Morning Harry." Sara said cheerfully, she grabbed the front of his trunk and tried to drag it to the car, but only succeeded in falling over. "What do you have in this?" She asked incredulously, her eyes widening, Harry grinned sheepishly.

"Well, let's just say that it would have been a lot heavier if Moody didn't cast lightening charms on it." Harry told her, Sara stared wide-eyed before she ran back to the car, dragging her Dad out.

"Morning Harry, I take it you couldn't handle your trunk then, Sara's was bad enough." Adam stated with a grin, Harry smirked and grabbed the back of his trunk.

"Thanks for the ride." He said gratefully, Adam nodded and helped heave Harry's heavy trunk into the boot of the massive Volvo they owned.

"Man, that weighs more than the boxes Karla makes me drag into the car for carboots!" Adam exclaimed as he pushed it further in the boot.

"Hey!" Karla exclaimed, "I don't _make_ you do anything." She stated, Adam snorted, "I threaten." She added, Harry laughed and sat next to Sara in the car.

"Morning Karla." He greeted.

"Morning Harry, all set?" She asked, Harry shook his head and clipped in his seatbelt.

"Am now." He stated, he leaned forward and looked to Dawn, who was sitting next to Sara, who was in the middle. "Hey Dawn, bet you can't wait to be the only kid in the house, huh?" He asked the little girl, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Yep yep!" She exclaimed, Sara rolled her eyes.

"Stop copying that silly cartoon." She moaned.

"Not cartoon! A _pogamme_!" Dawn reprimanded in a child-like serious way, Harry held his mouth to stop from laughing and he knew that Adam and Karla would be trying to refrain from laughing also. This would definitely be an interesting ride to the station.

They arrived at the station at twenty-past ten and by the time they had trolleys, gotten Dawn out of the car and worked their way through the crowds to platform nine, it was half past ten.

"What's the platform again?" Karla asked.

"Platform nine and three-quarters." Sara recited, looking around in bewilderment. "Where is it?" She asked, looking up to Harry, who grinned.

"Hidden." He stated, he lent his trolley against a wall and leant against it. "Have a run up, it's easier." He stated, and before they could ask, he disappeared through the wall, along with his trolley. Sara looked right at it in determination.

"Well, lets go." She muttered, running up to the wall with her trolley, her parents following her. Sara closed her eyes and just as she expected to hit the wall, she felt no impact and opened her eyes to a platform crowded with students and parents; Harry was standing there with a smug grin on his face.

"Where are your things?" Adam asked.

"On the train already. Asked a friend to take it for me." Harry replied, Sara nodded.

"Wow, there are so many people." She muttered, looking around.

"Yeah, there's a lot." Harry told her, "There's about forty people in each year group, that's not tha-"

"Harry!" Came an excited shout, Harry groaned as a boy flashed a camera in his face then blinked a few times.

"Wotcha Colin." Harry greeted unenthusiastically whilst rolling his eyes slightly.

"Hiya Harry!" The boy exclaimed excitedly, "I just wanted you to know that me and Dennis… we believed you from the start." He stated cheerfully, Harry smiled meekly.

"Thanks Colin." He said, remembering memories he'd rather forget, Colin waved and walked off, Harry rapidly blinked his eyes to get rid of the bright spots blocking his vision; he was wearing his glasses again today as the contacts had been packed.

"Who was that?" Sara asked, Harry turned to her.

An over-enthusiastic housemate." Harry replied, "C'mon, we better get your things into a compartment. I think I know where Neville found one." He said mainly to himself.

Sara took the back of her trunk whilst Harry took the front and her black cat, Barney's cage. He led them through the crowd, people were staring, but Harry ignored it and stepped onto the train, the White's were waiting outside as Harry led the way to the back compartment, he opened the door and faced a three of his roommates.

"Hey guys." He greeted.

"Hi Harry." "Hey." "Good to see you again mate!" The three now sixth year Gryffindor's greeted as Harry lifted Sara's trunk and put it into the over-head compartment, he saw his own trunk up there also.

"How'd you get mine up there? It weighed a tonne!" He asked.

"Wingardium leviosa." Dean told him.

"Who's the girl?" Seamus asked.

"Yeh, she looks like a relative, even a sister, though we all know that you don't have a sister so…" Neville left it hanging and Harry grinned, putting an arm around the blushing young girl's shoulders.

"This is Sara, my honorary little sister." Harry told them, "Sara, this is Neville, Seamus and Dean, three of my room mates."

"Hi." She said shyly.

"Hey Sara, nice to meet you." Neville said with a grin, shaking her hand exuberantly. "You were the girl from Diagon Alley, right?" Sara nodded again.

"Well, me and Sara had better get back to the White's, we'll see you guys later." Harry said with a short wave as he left.

Harry and Sara talked to the White's for about ten minutes or so before...

"Harry mate!" A male voice boomed loudly, Harry turned and grinned at the crowd approaching them.

"Hey guys." He greeted them all. Mr and Mrs Weasley were there, along with Bill and the twins, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, also Remus, Moody and a small redheaded girl who was obviously another Weasley, a slightly nervous one at that.

"Hey Harry." Hermione said happily, she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. "Nice glasses. Thanks for the help." She added, Harry hugged her back and nodded.

"Thanks and no problem." He replied with a smirk.

"Hiya Harry." Ginny then said, greeting him with a hug also. "How are you?" She asked as she pulled back, genuine concern was etched into her face.

"I'm good, how're you guys?" He asked, looking mainly at Hermione and Ron.

"I'm good, still having to take potions everyday, only two though." Hermione answered in a relieved tone.

"I'm cool." Ron told him, Harry realised the other teen had a long sleeve shirt on, which he rolled up the sleeves to show Harry his forearms. "It's a bit more permanent than I would've liked." He added, looking down at his scars.

"Well, can't be as bad as the thoughts you experienced, right?" Harry asked hopefully, Ron grimaced.

"Well, at least I can hide this mess on my arms with glamour charms." He stated, then the redheaded teen realised his mother was glaring at him. "Not that I would." He added hastily, Fred and George muffled their laughter.

"Like the present then Harry?" George- or was it Fred? - asked, he eyed the black dragonhide jacket Harry was wearing before looking at his own lurid green one.

"Looks very smart." The other stated pompously, Harry rolled his eyes.

"Thanks, all of you, the presents were great." Harry told them with a grin.

"That was no problem Harry mate, you needed some decent clothes." Bill stated, "Like the hair by the way." He added with a grin, Hermione stared at Harry's now shorter and spiky hair.

"Wow, it's great." She stated, approaching him and putting her hand up to test the spikes, Harry realised her own hair was much more curly than when he had last seen her; and he also saw that Ron obviously appreciated the other changes her body had gone through the past year or so, namely the now quite curvy figure. Remus, Mr Weasley and Bill laughed when Ginny also approached Harry and started testing his hair with the palm of her hands as if fascinated.

"Hey hey! I got enough of that from Sara!" Harry exclaimed.

"Sara? Who's Sara?" Ron asked, Harry sidestepped out of the way.

"Sara as in Sara." Harry stated, grinning at the tiny eleven year old. "Honorary little sister." He informed, he messed up Sara's hair.

"Hey! Bugger off!" She exclaimed, batting his hand away.

"Sara!" Her parents reprimanded.

"What's bugger mean?" Dawn asked, Harry stifled his laughs.

"Nothing Dawn, just your big sister saying naughty words." Karla told the tiny girl.

"Why?" Dawn persisted.

"Never mind Dawnie." Adam said to his daughter as he picked her up from her pushchair.

"Why?" Dawn asked again, Harry and Sara laughed as Karla sighed.

"This is your fault." She muttered to Sara in a mock angry voice.

"Hey guys, this is Karla, Dawn and Adam. They brought me here this morning and we met in Diagon Alley a little while ago." Harry introduced before Dawn started and wouldn't shut up.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Hermione." Hermione said to them all, she shook Sara and Adam's hands. "That's Ron, Ginny, Prof- I mean Remus, Pr- Moody, Bill, Fred, George (or the other way round), Lauryn and Mr and Mrs Weasley." Hermione told them.

"Oh, we've heard a bit about all of you." Karla stated, "Nothing bad." She added as they looked suspiciously at Harry. "Just-"

"Auntie K?" Someone asked curiously, a pretty girl with black curly hair that bounced around her shoulders with pink curly strips going through it, she wore a pair of muggle jeans under her half fastened cloak of the latest fashion.

"Charlene!" Sara exclaimed, she hugged the confused young woman.

"Why are you here?" Charlene asked.

"I got accepted into Hogwarts! Do you go too?" Sara asked.

"No, she doesn't." Harry said with a confused look on his face, Charlene turned around in shock.

"Harry!" She exclaimed, she flung her arms around his neck and gave him a huge hug, which he returned eagerly.

"Why are you here?" He asked confusedly.

"I'm starting Hogwarts." Charlene said proudly, "I take it that you also go?"

"Yeah, all five years." Harry muttered, he reached out and picked up a pink lock of the girls curly hair.

"Oh, do you like it?" She asked, Harry nodded.

"Suits you." He said with a grin, Charlene blushed and looked down slightly. "You didn't tell me that you'd dyed it again." He added.

"That's because I didn't." Charlene stated, making Harry sport a confused look. "I'm a colourmorphus." She added in explanation.

"A what?" Sara asked incredulously.

"A colourmorphus." Charlene repeated, "It means that I can change the colour of anything about me." She added for Harry's and Sara's sakes. "Watch." She held up her hand so that her polished nails were facing them and closed her eyes in concentration, her nails changed to a light blue colour with little white clouds on them, she held her hand out to Sara, who gasped.

"Wicked!" The little black haired first year exclaimed, Charlene shrugged.

"I'm used to it." She stated with a roll of her eyes, she turned back to Harry and hugged him tightly again. "I thought I'd have to wait until the next family party to see you." She said in his ear, Harry smiled and hugged her back, ignoring his friend's weird looks.

"Oh well, at least we're going to the same school." Harry stated, Charlene gently pulled out of the hug but still held his hand.

"I need to get my things onto the train, I'll be right back." She said softly.

"Let me help you, you can sit with us lot." Harry stated, Charlene glanced at who she thought old enough to be in Hogwarts.

"You sure?" She asked, Harry nodded and levitated her trunk, then tugged on her hand when she didn't walk.

"Come on, we can come back out and talk in a moment." He told her, Charlene nodded and followed him back into the train.

"Since when did Harry have a girlfriend?" Ron asked incredulously.

"I knew they did more than just talk!" Sara exclaimed.

"Sara!" Karla exclaimed.

"What? It's true!" Her eldest daughter retorted.

"She seems nice." Hermione observed.

"Nice? Hermione, she's a _model_." Ginny said incredulously, "Do you know how famous she is? She probably doesn't even realise that he's Harry Potter!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Hermione stated, "Of course she knows."

"What's so big about Harry?" Sara asked curiously.

"Didn't he tell you about Voldemort?" Hermione asked, noticing the shivers of the Weasley's she rolled her eyes, "Oh Merlin, it's just a name." She stated, Ron shook his head.

"It's a _bad_ name." He stated, Hermione hit his arm lightly with another roll of her eyes.

"Whatever." She muttered.

"Harry told us about Voldemort and that he's evil, he told us about him being banished and then coming back again, but Harry's just like any other guy I know." Sara stated.

"What's all this about me?" Harry asked as he walked over, still holding Charlene's hand.

"Sara doesn't understand why you're famous." Ginny stated, she rolled her eyes.

"Oh. I already explained it to her though." Harry stated, recognition shone in Charlene's eyes.

"Oh Merlin! How did I not remember?" She asked herself, Harry looked confused.

"What?" He asked.

"Your Harry _Potter_. How did I not realise?" Charlene asked herself again. "Your scar, I saw it and I knew I recognised it but…"

"Charlene, are you sure you're not blond?" Sara asked, Charlene glared at her cousin.

"Ha ha." Charlene muttered sarcastically. "It was a small mistake, I've been in the States for the past year so leave me alone." They were quiet for a minute until Ginny started giggling slightly.

"What're you laughing about?" Ron asked his mental sister.

"Harry and Charlene." She stated with another giggle.

"What about us?" Harry asked with a strange look that he shared with Ron.

"You two are going to be the hottest couple of the wizarding world, world famous model and The-Boy-Who-Lived." Ginny stated.

"Couple?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are we a 'couple' now Charlene?"

"Well, we could be." Charlene said to him.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" Harry asked with an impish grin.

"I don't know, do you want to be my boyfriend?" Charlene asked, mirroring the look, Harry laughed and kissed her on the lips gently.

"Maybe." He replied.

"Then I may want to be your girlfriend." Charlene replied cheekily with a smirk.

"ALL ABOARD!" One of the Conductors shouted, the teens all said goodbye quickly and ran for their compartment, only just reaching the train as it started moving.

They walked up to their normal compartment and entered, it seemed that the two other boys had left Neville in favour of another compartment and the other teen was staring idly out of the window at the scenery passing by.

"Hi Neville." Ginny greeted with a sweet smile as she sat next to him. Hermione and Ron settled down next to Ginny and Harry, Charlene, Sara and the new Weasley girl sat down opposite them.

"Hi, I'm Harry." Harry greeted the unfamiliar red head.

"Lauryn Weasley." She girl stated, "Weasley by name, Weasley by hair." She added, causing the rest to laugh as soon as she had said it.

"Are you a first year too?" Sara asked her, Lauryn nodded. "Cool, I'm Sara White, nice to meet you." She stated.

"Same here." Lauryn replied with a small smile.

Harry slyly slid his arm around Charlene's shoulders and was shocked when she suddenly leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. Ron laughed slightly but tried to muffle it.

"So Neville how was your summer?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It was alright, my Gran was right proud of what we did. Says I'm an auror in the making." Neville stated, though the last bit sounded a little bitter.

"What do you _want_ to be when your older Neville?" Ron asked with force.

"A herbologist." Neville muttered embarrassedly.

"Then be that." Ron stated, Hermione was shocked, she had never heard him sound so grown up before.

"What about-"

"Don't worry about your Gran, be what _you_ want to be, not what she wants you to be." Ron demanded, Hermione had realised that he had seemed to grow up a lot over the summer, probably due to what he had seen and been through at the Department of Mysteries. She also realised that they had gotten closer, his arm rested over her shoulders at that precise moment, it was probably reflex for him after the amount of time they had spent together, just comforting each other and talking at the HQ. He seemed so much more mature, and cute, she had to add to herself that she was noticing him more and more now. She blushed slightly at her thoughts and turned back to the conversation on what they wanted to be when they were older.

"So you still want to be an auror Harry?" Ginny asked, Harry nodded an affirmative.

"Of course, I signed up for all of the courses that I need. What about you Ron? What courses have you chosen?" Harry asked his best friend.

"Um… Charms, DADA, Transfig, Herbology, Divination and Charms." Ron replied.

"I thought you wanted to be an auror?" Harry asked, Ron shrugged.

"Didn't have the grades for Potions and when I said that at HQ Snape muttered something like _'Yes! One down two to go.'_" Ron informed them, Harry scowled.

"What a prat." He muttered, "What about you Hermione, still going for the career of locking scummers in the cells?" Harry asked, Hermione looked shocked.

"Harry!" Both her and Charlene exclaimed, Harry rolled his eyes as his two dorm mates snickered at him.

"I have the subjects but I don't think I want to be an auror much anymore." Hermione stated, "It's just too dangerous for my liking."

"And being my friend isn't?" Harry asked, again, Hermione shrugged.

"What do you want to be Charlene?" Hermione asked.

"I'm still and always will be a model." Charlene stated, "Though I'm going to try stay closer to home for shows after I've finished here, and I'm also going to get the qualifications to teach." She added.

"Oh? That's good." Hermione stated, Charlene smiled.

"Yeah, it is, I've always wanted to teach in the Magical Mayhem Infants and Juniors." Charlene stated proudly.

"That sounds fun." Hermione said, "I wish I could've gone there myself." She added.

"Yeah, that's the only problem with it." Charlene stated, "The fact that muggleborns can't go sooner."

"Hmm." Hermione murmured.

"It must be a small school." Harry said, "I mean, there's only forty in a year group at Hogwarts, and most of them are muggleborn."

"But there's also the other magical high schools in the UK." Hermione stated.

"More schools than just Hogwarts?" Ron asked, Hermione nodded.

"There are lots scattered around, Hogwarts is just the biggest and most known." She replied.

"Oh." Both Harry and Ron muttered simultaneously.

"Have any idea what you want to be when your older Ginny?" Hermione asked, Ginny shook her head.

"Nope, but something that involves children would be perfect, maybe a children's nurse? Anyways, I haven't a clue what I want to be." Ginny told them.

"I love children, they are so easy to work with." Charlene stated, "That's why I'm going to teach one day."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a little while, just thinking about their own things.

"So what's with Charlie and Tonks?" Harry asked.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Charlie and Tonks?" Hermione asked, Harry nodded.

"In my vision, Tonks and Charlie were talking about going on a date." He explained, Ron grinned manically.

"I knew he wasn't 'meeting mates' on those nights." The red headed boy stated fervently.

"Oh, so it isn't common knowledge?" Harry asked nervously, Hermione and Ron shook their heads.

"I knew, but only because I walked in on them, Snape knows too." Ginny stated.

"Snape? How did he find out?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"I was teasing Tonks and Charlie when Snape walked in, he looked bloody annoyed." Ginny stated.

"Ginny!" Hermione reprimanded her best friend for her language.

"What?" Ginny asked innocently.

"Your language that's what, it's becoming worse than Ron's." Hermione stated, Ginny shrugged.

"Oh well." She muttered whilst choosing to ignore Hermione's glare. "So… Did everybody have a good summer?"

"You know about ours already." Hermione stated, "What about you Harry?"

"It was okay after I met Sara." The raven-haired teen boy replied. "I got to baby-sit and get away from the Dursley's then."

"That's good then." Hermione muttered.

They sat in a comfortable silence again. That was until the door to their compartment opened.

"Oh look, Potter's found himself some new admirers." Came a sneering voice, they turned to see Malfoy and his two bulky cronies. Malfoy sneered threateningly at Sara and Lauryn.

"Piss off Malfoy." Harry hissed as he detached himself from Charlene and stood up, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and surprisingly Charlene all followed suit. "Your not wanted here."

"Oh look, a new Weasley." Malfoy sneered, he glanced the small and definitely inheritor of the Weasley Tempered girl who was glaring at him. He then looked back at Sara. "Didn't know you had a sister Potter, are you sure your real parents didn't dump you?"

"You better leave Sara out of this." Harry pratically growled, Malfoy smirked with satisfaction.

"Sara?" He queried, "Oh, _this _little mudblood." He added evilly. "And what about the little Weasel brat? Oooh, you scare me so." Malfoy taunted.

"We Weasley women may be small, but size is no guarantee of power Malfoy, we could best you in a duel any day." Ginny stated confidently. "Leave now or pay."

"I think I'm perfectly fine here Mudblood-Lover." Malfoy retorted, he was obviously enjoying annoying them, "And it looks as though you have no club to defend you now Potter. Where are they? Did they ditch you like your _dear_ God-Father done?" Malfoy asked innocently.

All of a sudden, bolts of light flew towards Malfoy and his cronies from all directions. After the light died down, the group saw a little white and pink crossbreed like ferret mixed with a mouse and two huge snails with multi-coloured shells.

"Need help?" Seamus asked, stepping over the snails and mouse-ferret.

"Maybe we should make it bounce." Dean suggested, "Wouldn't we all love to relive that moment."

"Yeah, but now it'd be 'Malfoy, the amazing bouncing white and pink ferret-mouse'." Ginny said with a manic grin.

"Oooh, I like the sound of that." Charlene replied with a huge grin.

"What's going on?" Someone asked curiously, a pretty seventh year girl approached, she wore the Head Girl badge on her casual light blue robes. "Argh! What's going on!" She repeated incredulously, looking down at the three strange animals.

"Well, a few spells were fired, Katie." Harry said sheepishly, Katie looked questioningly at him and the others, Harry was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, Ron and Neville were sniggering, Seamus and Dean were leaning on each other for support from laughing so much, Sara looked a cross between a little worried and wanting to laugh, Charlene was giggling along with Ginny, Hermione was trying to look annoyed and cross but was failing miserably and little Lauryn was laughing and rolling over the floor from her laughter.

"What do you mean by a _few_ spells?" Katie replied with a hint of knowingness in her voice.

"Meet the new Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle." Ron said with a laugh, all of the teens burst out laughing and Katie was attempting to look disapproving, but let a small giggle escape her lips.

"Okay, okay, you realise that I'm going to-" A flash cut the newly appointed head girl off and Colin Creevey appeared with his brother and both had cameras.

"Everyone's going to want this!" Dennis exclaimed excitedly.

"Creevey's!" Katie shouted, "Go! There's nothing to see here!" The two boys scurried off quickly to avoid the young woman's wrath. "Finite incantatem!" Katie said, the three boys assumed they're normal forms.

Malfoy glared at them all.

"You'll pay for that Potter." He sneered before stalking off, his two cronies following dumbly behind.

"That was good." Katie complimented, "I'll see you guys later at the feast, please behave before then." She begged before starting to walk off. "Oh, and Harry." She turned and nodded to the badge that was proudly pinned onto his chest. "Congratulations Captain."

"Congratulations to you too." Harry said before he entered his now more-than-crowded compartment.

"So what did you guys do during the summer?" Harry asked Dean and Seamus.

"We spend our time watching the Quidditch on the wizarding wireless at Dean's house." Seamus told them, Harry looked confused.

"Isn't the wizarding wireless a radio?" He asked.

"Yes, but it also doubles as a television, you press a special button and it'll work." Hermione explained. "Me and the other girls have one in our dorm, they are always watching the fashion updates and music videos." She added with a roll of her eyes.

"Well I've brought mine in, got it for my birthday, but we can watch the Quidditch on it." Dean stated, "I have WWN Plus, has thousands of channels."

"Actually it only has two thousand channels." Charlene stated, Harry looked at her incredulously.

"Some of them are muggle channels, I like watching them on tours sometimes." She defended. "It's better than listening to some of the bitches I have to put up with."

Like your not a bitch. Zodiac said from Harry's wrist. Harry pulled up his sleeve.

Be nice. He warned, Harry could've sworn that Zodiac rolled his eyes.

"Harry, is that a _snake_?" Hermione asked, she seemed frightened.

"Yeah, meet Zodiac, I found him in Diagon Alley." Harry replied, oblivious to Hermione's sudden fear, surprisingly, Ginny leant over and stroked the snake.

"Hey Zodiac, nice to meet you." She said, Zodiac slithered onto her wrist and the girl giggled as she stroked him.

No problem. Zodiac replied, Harry rolled his eyes. This girl is nice. He added.

"Hey, you should be glad Ron couldn't hear you." Harry stated.

"Oh Harry, don't over exaggerate, he only said I was nice for Merlin's sake." Ginny said with a roll of her eyes; everyone stared wide-eyed at her as she realised her mistake. "Whoops." She muttered.

"What do you mean Ginny?" Ron asked.

"Well…" Ginny trailed off.

"_Ginevra Molly Weasley_." Ron warned. Ginny muttered something incoherently, "What was that?" Ron asked.

"I can understand snakes." Ginny muttered embarrassedly.

"What? How?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"I don't know!" Ginny exclaimed, "It just happened after my first year in Hogwarts."

"Tom." Harry filled in for her, Ginny nodded.

"I think so." She replied uncertainly. "It's nothing major though, I can't speak parseltounge, I can just understand snakes." Dean's grip around his girlfriend's waist tightened and he stroked Zodiac softly along his back uncertainly.

"That's cool." Dean stated after a moments thought, Ginny smiled up at him and pecked him on the lips before leaning into his shoulder.

"Thanks." She said to them all quietly.

They sat quietly for the rest of the journey, Hermione was reading, Ron still had his arm around her waist loosely and Hermione was leaning into his shoulder as she read, Harry and Ginny shared knowing looks at that; Luna, who had joined them a bit later, was sitting against the window seat reading her edition of the Quibbler with Ginny peering over at the pages when asked to even though she was reading her new copy of 'Teen Witch' which had a picture of Charlene smiling and waving at them from the cover; Ron was playing chess with Seamus, who was being thrashed badly and was still keeping a hold on Ginny like Ron was doing with Hermione; Sara and Lauryn were talking about what they expected Hogwarts to be like after they had given up on asking the older teens who wouldn't tell them how they'd be sorted a little earlier; Neville sat and watched the games of chess; Harry was talking with Zodiac and Ginny giggled every once in a while at what the pair were talking about and joined in quietly as her magazine got stuffed back into her bag. It seemed that Charlene had fallen asleep amidst it all.

"We shall be at Hogsmeade Station soon, please change into your robes." A voice called over the intercom.

Harry woke Charlene up gently and the girls all left to go change into their school robes. The boys quickly changed and went back to their newly inducted chess tournament.

The girls came back about ten minutes later; Harry was shocked when he saw his grinning girlfriend. She was now a dark-tan colour and had her hair put up with two black sticks, her robes differed from the usual style, they had flaring arms and they were tight in all of the right areas, the most surprising change however was the colour of her hair; it was pink. Bubblegum pink like Tonks'.

"Nice hair." Ron said with a smirk that Charlene mirrored.

"I know." She replied, "I wanted to make an impression."

"People will be staring like crazy." Dean stated, he cocked his head to the side, "It'll be funny to see Snape's face though." He added as an after thought. They all laughed at that.

"Well, I was thinking that I might… randomly change it at odd intervals." Charlene stated, "Just have a little fun."

"Can your body just change its colour without you wanting it too?" Hermione asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Charlene asked.

"Well, can like, say your hair, just change colour on it's own accord?" Hermione rephrased her question to.

"Not that I know of." Charlene stated, "Could happen I suppose."

"Looks like we're stopping." Ron observed. "Can't wait to see the new DADA teacher."

"Me neither." Dean agreed as the train stopped completely.

"It'll be funny to see what sort of jerk we have teaching us this year." Harry added.

"It could be someone like Remus." Hermione stated.

"I damn well hope it is." Ginny said, Hermione shot a glare at the younger girl, who pretended to hide behind Dean. "Don't hurt me." She begged mockingly, they all laughed and carried on walking.

"Firs' years! Firs' years ove' 'ere!" They heard Hagrid's shout, Harry grinned and made his way over.

"Hi Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed, Hagrid grinned down at the group of friends and hugged Harry in a death grip.

"Hullo Harry!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Loo' Harry, I'm sorry 'bout Sirius, he was a good man." Harry looked down slightly.

"Thanks Hagrid." He replied, they were quiet for a moment.

"Umm, Hagrid, would you be needing to take Charlene across the lake too?" Hermione asked,

"Um, sure." Hagrid replied, his gaze fell to the now violet haired and deeply tanned girl, who had changed yet again. "I think you're goin' ta give Tonks a run fer her money with that hair." He added with a grin to calm the nervous teen. Those who had met Tonks laughed.

"See you later Charlene." They all said, walking away. Harry pecked her on the lips and gave her a smile before leaving.

The thestrals didn't seem to scare him as much as they had the year before; Harry smiled and reached out to pat the one closest to him awkwardly then got into the carriage and let it take them up to the school.

The group split up to their correct tables (namely Luna who moved to the Ravenclaw table) and sat down, waiting for the sorting to begin.

"Hey, that woman must be the new defence teacher." Dean whispered to them, they all turned to see the pretty, well; the boys thought she was very beautiful for her apparent age, light brown (nearly blond) haired woman. Her hair was half pulled up, the top was in a ponytail and the rest flowed beneath it. She wore robes of a dark blue colour, almost sapphire and she was talking animatedly with Snape.

"She's very pretty." Hermione commented.

"But she's talking to Snape." Seamus added, they all turned away from her at that comment.

"Hey look, the first years." Ginny informed them with a nod at the line of new students. Charlene was walking up front next to McGonnagal, who seemed very disapproving of her violet hair, which was now dark purple on the bottom. The teen girls started gasping at Charlene, realising who she was and the teen guys goggled at her and started telling their friends of their proud collection of posters on her. Harry glared at every one of those guys, including a few Gryffindor's in the year above.

The Sorting Hat was placed onto the stool and shocked the first years as it started singing, even Charlene looked shocked.

_"When I was new, those years ago,_

_This school had not so much to show._

_Four houses united, never apart,_

_The same intent deep in their heart._

_Gryffindor stood tall and proud,_

_For our most noble and loud,_

_They have daring, nerve and are brave at heart._

_Or you might belong where great minds are, unafraid of toil_

_Where those with the patience stay,_

_Sweet Hufflepuff so loyal._

_Or lets not forget dear Ravenclaw,_

_The smartest minds of them all,_

_For those who love to read and learn,_

_With others like their kind._

_And finally old Slytherin,_

_Where the sly and cunning reside,_

_These sly ones never hide._

_So try me on, don't be afraid,_

_I'll choose your perfect home,_

_For I'm never wrong and I'm always right,_

_Put me on now, I promise I don't bite!"_

The song finished and everyone clapped slightly.

"When I call your name, please come and place the Hat on your head." McGonnagal said to the first years. "Amling, Amber."

A small girl with a tiny blond ponytail in her hair nervously stepped forward. After the Hat was on her head for a few seconds, it called _"GRYFFINDOR!"_, Harry and his friends burst into applause.

Harry zoned out for a while, clapping when somebody new came into Gryffindor, at least until _"Weasley, Lauryn."_ was called. Harry watched as Lauryn nervously approached the stool. She sat down and nearly immediately, the Hat called _"GRYFFINDOR!"_. Lauryn smiled with relief and skipped down to the table, taking a seat with her fellow first years.

_"White, Sara."_ Was called straight after Lauryn and Harry held his crossed fingers up to show Sara. The young girl smiled and nervously waved to him before setting the Hat on her head.

After what seemed like forever for Sara, the Hat screamed _"GRYFFINDOR!"_, Harry stood and started whooping, making his surrogate little sister blush profusely as she sat down next to Lauryn.

As they finished with _"Zanzibar, Mahesh."_ Going into Slytherin, Dumbledore stood from his seat.

"I'd like to announce that this year, a new student shall be joining our sixth years." He said, chatter filled the hall once again and Charlene looked to the floor to avoid the stares. "Her name is Charlene Therney and I hope you welcome her like any other new student." Dumbledore sat down and McGonnagal indicated for Charlene to sit on the stall.

Even though she was bigger than the first years, the hat still fell over her eyes. A few moments later, it shouted her new house.

_"GRYFFINDOR!"_ The Gryffindor table went up in cheers and huge applause. Harry grinned as Charlene strode over and pecked him on the lips before sitting down with them all. A shocked silence hit the hall and was only broken by Dumbledore standing back up to talk to them all.

"Welcome back to a new year of Hogwarts!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "Now, as this isn't the time for our annual speech, Stuff yourselves full!" He clapped his hands as the food appeared on the table, shocking each of the first years, including Charlene.

"So, glad you're in Gryffindor?" Ron asked her, Charlene nodded.

"Couldn't be happier." She replied happily. They sat in silence for a moment.

"I can't wait until Quidditch practice." Ron stated, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"That's all you ever talk about." She muttered, though Ron, who sat right next to her, shook his head.

"It's not." He stated, "I talk about food too." They all laughed happily with that comment.

"I don't see the big deal with Quidditch." Charlene stated, she put some more roast potatoes in her mouth and swallowed them before carrying on, "When I do see games I find them quite annoying. The only thing I like is the exciting atmosphere."

"I'm like that too but the guys don't understand." Hermione told her new friend, glad that someone shared her opinions on Quidditch for a change. "Neither does Ginny."

"Hey! I'm a chaser, I'm meant to think like that." The redheaded girl explained tartly.

"Oh, you play on the team?" Charlene asked, Ginny shook her head slightly.

"I was Harry's replacement seeker last year after he was banned from Quidditch." Ginny explained. "He plays seeker. But I'm going to try out for chaser this year, I find it so much easier and there's two spots on the team for chasers."

"Banned from Quidditch? But I thought you are Captain of your team? That's what I thought your badge meant." Charlene said to Harry.

"I _was_ banned for life by this ridiculous teacher last year, but obviously that's been lifted." He replied happily. "I didn't have any idea of how I would be able to sit and watch games for the rest of my life without joining in."

"Well…" Hermione muttered. "What classes are you taking then Charlene?" Harry and Ron rolled their eyes but Charlene started to have a conversation with Hermione about the advantages of her classes for her dream job.

A little while later, Dumbledore stood from his position at the Head Table, Harry glared at the wizened old man.

"Well, welcome back to a new year at Hogwarts." Dumbledore started. "I realise that some students have left our school in favour of other smaller schools due to the public return of Voldemort." Gasps and shivers swept across the Hall but Dumbledore ignored it. "Anyway, for the usual start of term notices, I'd like you all to remember that the Forbidden Forest is out of bonds to _all_ students in these dark times and that includes any students who happen to own magical artefacts that they think lets them get away with things." Dumbledore glanced briefly at the smirking fifth (Ginny) and sixth year Gryffindors. "Mr Filch the caretaker has also asked me to remind you that magic is not permitted in the corridors between classes and nor are a number of items, the names of which you can see posted on his office door and that also includes every Weasley Wizarding Wheezes product." A collective groan rippled throughout the Great Hall at that remark.

"Now, there is a change in staffing this year, like with every other year." Most of the elder students and staff laughed at this, "I would like to introduce Professor Alston to you all and she shall be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts." A round of polite applause filled the hall as the beautiful woman from before stood and waved to them all.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the Quidditch house teams shall be held as soon as your team captains arrange for them but they shall be held before the third week of term in preparation for the first game of the year.

"With that said, I'd like prefects to direct younger students to their dorms. Goodnight." Dumbledore sat back down and Hermione, Ron and Ginny went to work with sending the younger students to the dorms, Ginny had been made the third Weasley prefect earlier that summer.

"We should get going." Harry said, his dorm mates nodded and the sixth years headed up to their dorms together. Charlene tried to remember her way as they went along, though soon got confused.

"Fiddlesticks." Harry said to the portrait of the resident Fat Lady in the pink dress. She opened her portrait and let them in.

"How did you know that?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Ron told me." Harry replied. "I'm going to head up."

"We will too." Neville stated, Dean collapsed onto a sofa as Seamus, Harry and Neville headed for the stairs.

"Aren't you coming up?" Seamus asked, Dean shook his head.

"Waiting for Ginny." He replied.

"Where are my dorms?" Charlene asked timidly, Harry turned back to her.

"Oh, they're up those stairs somewhere." He replied, "Wait a sec." He approached Lavender and Parvati who were at the foot of the girls' stairs. "Can you do me favour and take Charlene up to your dorms?" He asked.

"Sure." Lavender replied, Parvati giggled and took Charlene's wrist, dragging her up the stairs.

"Night Harry!" His girlfriend called.

"Night." Harry called back before heading up his own staircase. He went to his dorm and quickly changed before collapsing into his warm, burgundy bed.

**Wow, longest chapter I've _ever_ done! Even on these pre-written stories I'm testing out! What an achievement! Thirteen pages! Six thousand eight hundred and ninety-two words!**


	6. Chapter 6 Classes and Alessandria Alsto...

**AN: Please check out my Yahoo! group (link on my user lookup page) and sorry for the delay in updating!**

**As I sit here writing this I know that it'll be an extra long chapter! I might just make another chapter…**

**Chapter 6 – Classes and Alessandria Alston**

Harry blearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slowly sat up in his bed. He pulled back the warm burgundy velvet bed curtains from around him and grinned boyishly. He was finally back home.

"Hey Harry, good to see you awake." Dean said cheerfully as he came out from the bathroom with a big red towel wrapped firmly around his slim waist.

"Your up this early?" Harry asked incredulously, Dean nodded.

"I'm meeting Ginny. I've managed to avoid Ron's temper so far, I want my luck to last." He stated with a grin, Harry laughed.

"Yeah, I get you." He replied, "I hope Charlene hasn't got any brothers."

"What's with you and her anyway?" Dean asked as he pulled on his trousers over his red snitch boxers, Harry jumped out of bed and went over to his trunk to pull out some of his clothes for the day. His main uniform was already hung over the chair in the corner so he just placed some of his new black boxers and socks on his bed and grabbed a towel.

"We met in the holidays at Sara's parents summer party. We just hit it off."

"I bet y-y-you did." Came Seamus' voice from his bed, punctuated with a huge yawn. Harry smirked.

"What about you? Anyone special?" He asked his half-asleep roommate, who shook his head blearily, either for the question or to wake up Harry wasn't so sure.

"Not yet." Seamus replied. "I heard Neville met someone in the holidays, not sure who though."

"I dint meet anyone in the holidays." Neville said wide awake as he rolled over to face them, king Harry wonder if he had been awake the whole time. "I met her before school finished." Neville corrected with a small smile.

"Who?" Dean asked curiously, he was now tying his red and gold Gryffindor tie up.

"Why would I tell you?" Neville asked incredulously as he raised himself onto his elbow.

"C'mon Nev mate, tell us. We've been your roommates for the past five years." Seamus said pleadingly, Harry snorted.

"If he'll tell anybody he'll tell me. Right Neville." Harry asked, Neville clambered out of bed and to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. "Neville?"

"Where the fire?" Ron asked, shooting up in his bed quickly and he started looking around. He had his wand in hand, as if ready to hex somebody.

"Neville just slammed the door." Dean filled in for the redhead.

"Think he's annoyed with us?" Seamus asked with a malicious grin.

"Us? Nah." Harry said offhandedly, "You maybe." Seamus gaped and was about to say something but Dean cut him off before he could start speaking.

"So is there anyone special in your life at the moment Ron?" He asked as his last roommate stumbled out of his warm red bed.

"No." Ron grumbled with the cursed Weasley blush staining his cheeks.

"I can think of somebody." Harry said impishly. "She has long brown curly hair, she's one of the bossiest people I know, she has nice brown eyes, her name begins with a 'H' and ends in an 'E'. Guess who she could be." Ron just threw a pillow at him in response whilst Dean and Seamus laughed at how red Ron had gone.

"Bugger off." He grumbled at his best friend.

"It's true mate." Dean stated.

"You're whipped." Seamus added. Ron mumbled something incoherently and grabbed his towel before heading to the bathroom.

Harry, Seamus and Dean made sounds like a whip cracking behind Ron's back as he left and they received the finger and another slammed door in response. The three broke down into laughter in response.

"He's not going to be talking to us either now." Dean stated, Harry nodded.

"I'd better get washed up." He replied.

"Me too." Seamus stated. They left for the bathroom as Dean went downstairs to meet Ginny.

Harry walked Charlene down to breakfast and the pair settled down on the table with Dean, Seamus, Ginny and Neville.

"Where's my brother?" Ginny asked curiously as she placed hers and Dean's inter-locked hands onto the bench comfortably whilst she picked at her breakfast with a fork.

"He's just coming with Hermione." Harry said with a manic grin, which Dean and Seamus mirrored as soon as Ron came into the room talking with Hermione.

The duo came over and as Ron sat down, the three boys made a sound like a whip cracking again, Ron glared at them as they smiled innocently.

"Just bugger off already why don't you?" Ron said evilly, Harry cracked up slightly.

"Hey, it's the truth." He stated with an innocent shrug.

"What _are_ you on about?" Hermione asked with a no nonsense tone to her voice.

"Nothing." Ron said quickly, with another glare at his roommates saying _'Don't even think about it'_. He went to reach for the milk when the three guys made the whipping sound again. Ron glared again before actually grabbing the handle of the milk jug and poured some of the white liquid into his cereal.

"I doubt he'll be talking to us for a while." Dean said nonchalantly, Harry and Seamus snorted in agreement.

"Hey!" A perky voice said from behind them, Harry grinned and moved over a little so that the girl could sit down.

"Like your first night then Sara?" He asked, Sara nodded.

"It was cool. This morning, I forgot where I was." She replied exuberantly, they all laughed a bit.

"Where's Lauryn?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"She was asleep when I left, but I got lost so…" Sara drifted off.

"She's probably still asleep." Ron, Hermione and Ginny all replied simultaneously causing them all to laugh again.

"Good morning, I hope you slept well." McGonnagal said as she approached them with the timetables. She glanced at them all and her eyes rested on Sara. "And I'm assuming that you must be Sara White?" She asked, the young raven-haired girl nodded hesitantly. "Well, make sure you arrive to my class on time. I'd hate to take points from my own house." McGonnagal stated and gave one of her rare smiles to Sara as she handed out the timetables. "See you this afternoon Mr Potter." She continued with a nod before going to the next group along the table.

"Hey, she didn't say anything to me and I have her this morning." Ron commented as he looked over his timetable, which was promptly snatched from his hands by Hermione who had taken Harry's and Charlene's timetables too.

"Me, Harry and Charlene are in potions together," She observed as she read through each, "We all take Care of Magical Creatures together, Ron and Charlene are in the same DADA class and Charms class, We all are in the same Astronomy class, Me and Harry are in the same ADADA class, Harry and Charlene share Transfiguration together, and Harry, Ron and Charlene are in the same Herbology class." Hermione finished with a deep breath. "That's it I think."

"Wow, we are a little more spread out this year." Harry stated, Hermione nodded.

"Of course, we chose different things for our options." She said matter-of-factly.

"Ron has a lot of classes on his own." Harry informed the small group, looking over Ron's shoulder at the redhead's timetable.

"He'll most probably be in those classes with someone else from Gryffindor." Hermione told them.

"Yeah, that'll be good enough." Ron said unenthusiastically, now wishing he had taken ADADA to be with Harry and Hermione.

"Don't look so glum, it may never happen." Charlene said cheerfully from in front of him, Ron looked up and smiled slightly.

"Yeah." He muttered.

"We better finish up and head up to our classes." Hermione said, glancing at her watch.

"But we only just got down here!" Ron complained.

"And that's your fault for making us all late." Hermione stated with a pointed look at him, "Had you not been doing whatever you were up to in your dorm then we'd've been here on time. And anyway, we can always visit the kitchens later."

"Oh we should do that actually." Harry said thoughtfully as he stood up, "I need to visit Dobby, I haven't seen him in a while and he must be getting worried."

"That's a great idea Harry!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, "Then I could ask him a few questions for my new campaign!" Harry and Ron rolled their eyes and Charlene looked particularly interested.

"Campaign?" She inquired in a curious voice.

"Curiosity killed the cat." Harry whispered in Charlene's ear, Ron sniggered but Hermione either ignored it or didn't hear.

"My campaign for the better treatment of House-elves. The Society of the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. My new campaign for it is top secret though." She explained.

"Wow, you're really interested in that?" Charlene asked, Hermione nodded, "Mind if I join you then? It seems interesting."

"Really?" Hermione asked, now it was Charlene's turn to nod. "Thanks, that'll be great."

"She'll never get out of it now." Ron whispered to Harry as the two girls walked a little ahead, talking about all sorts of things.

"I'm curious." Charlene said with an impish grin at Hermione.

"What do you want to know?" The other young woman asked, oblivious to her companions grin.

"You and Ron." Charlene said, "Are you a couple or not? You're all cuddly and you'd be sweet together." She turned back to her new friend and was happy to see the soft blush that graced Hermione's face.

"It would never work out." Hermione stated, she glanced back at Ron and turned around abruptly when she caught him staring at her. Charlene glanced back and her grin grew when she saw where Ron's stare was aimed.

"Why not? You obviously both like each other." Charlene said to Hermione confidently.

"It… just wouldn't." Hermione muttered. "I like him… a lot, but we are always arguing and… and he would never feel that way about me." She looked down at the floor to avoid Charlene's gaze.

"Why wouldn't he feel that way about you?" Charlene asked incredulously. "Your funny, smart, pretty and great conversation. That tells me some things already." Hermione's blush increased.

"He wouldn't." She stated, "Fiddlesticks." She said loudly to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"You may enter." The woman in the portrait replied. Hermione dashed up the stairs to her dorm the moment the portrait had opened fully, Charlene went up a little more sophisticatedly and when she reached her dorm, she heard the water in the bathroom running. Hermione came out a moment later towel-drying her now peach coloured face.

"What was that for?" Charlene asked her new friend.

"I'm trying to cool down my face, I was hot." Hermione made up, Charlene gave her a look that said _'Yeah right.'_ And giggled as she went to her trunk to get her things for the day. Hermione copied the procedure and put all of the equipment she needed that day into her dark blue demin shoulder bag, Charlene had a dark red rucksack that was made of corduroy.

"Wow, I like your bag Charlene." Hermione said as they got up to leave the room.

"Thanks, it took me forever to make." Charlene replied.

"You made it." Hermione asked, Charlene nodded.

"Yeah, it's about the only thing I can make too." She stated, Hermione and her laughed a tiny bit and they reached the bottom of the stairs to see the boys waiting for them.

"Are we going then?" Harry asked, the girls nodded and left the common room with the boys.

"I'm so glad I dropped potions." Ron said blissfully, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Don't remind me." Harry said with a groan.

"What do you have first period then Ron?" Charlene asked as she took Harry's hand into her own.

"Period?" Ron asked.

"Lesson." Hermione told him, "Means the same."

"Oh." Ron muttered. "I have transfiguration then charms."

"And we get potions." Harry grumbled.

"I have to go this way now, see you all later." Ron said with a wave as he walked off into a different corridor.

The other three carried on walking at a slow pace to the dungeons where their dreaded lesson would be.

They entered the classroom to find not that many people already in there, just a few from each house, one of those few from Slytherin being Malfoy, without his cronies who were too dumb to be in a NEWT level potions class.

Hermione and Charlene sat together and Harry took the seat behind them next to an extremely nervous Neville.

"Hey, I didn't know you got into this class." Harry said to Neville quietly.

"I didn't think I would, but the examiners were much nicer than Snape." The pudgy teen replied, Harry smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Quiet now." Snape sneered at them all as he stormed into the room; Harry glared at him with a burning hatred. The class fell into a short silence. "This is NEWT level Potions and the arts you shall learn here make your first five years seem incredibly easy. Concentrate!" He snapped at one of the Ravenclaw's at the front who had been caught day-dreaming. "Get to work on this potion." He further instructed as he wrote up the ingredients and method on the board.

"Hey Neville, reckon we'll fail?" Harry asked with an impish grin, trying to calm his friend's frayed nerves.

"Yes." Neville muttered, his face paling.

"No you won't. I'll help if you need me." Hermione said from in front of them, glaring at Harry for scaring the other Gryffindor.

"We can easily do this potion! Right Neville?" Harry said enthusiastically, he turned to his friend, "Neville?"

"No." Neville muttered as he got the correct ingredients from his bag with slightly shaking hands.

"Neville? Listen to me for a moment." Charlene said in a soft tone with a tad of demanding in it, "You listening?" She asked, Neville nodded, "Just try your hardest and when Snape comes over, just keep telling yourself that he can't scare you and be confident in yourself." She instructed, "And also, I heard you are good at Herbology?" Neville nodded silently again, "Well just connect the two and you'll find potions much easier."

"Connect the two?" Harry asked for his friend, Charlene nodded.

"If you're good at Herbology and know the properties of magical plants it helps, that's how I got through my potions OWLs." She explained.

"Stop nattering and get to work!" Snape shouted at them, making Hermione jump slightly as she had been listening intently to what Charlene had been advising Neville to do.

"Let's get on with this potion then." Harry muttered to the slightly more confident Neville.

"Argh! I thought it'd never end!" Harry exclaimed as he left the potions room with Hermione, Neville and Charlene.

"I ditto that." Charlene stated.

"Ditto?" Hermione asked, "What in the world does that mean?"

"Same here." Charlene filled in thoughtfully. "What do I have now?"

"Charms with Ron whilst me and Harry have ADADA." Hermione said, they other three looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"You remembered that?" Neville asked, Hermione nodded.

"Of course." She stated indignantly, "Who else would?" Harry and Neville rolled their eyes.

"Well I have Charms with Charlene and Ron next." Neville stated.

"That's good, then you can show Charlene the way to your classroom." Hermione said happily.

"I don't mind that, I'd like to get to know Harry's friends better." Charlene said happily with a cheery smile to Harry.

"Oh, that's alright then." Neville said a little uncertainly. "We have to go down this corridor now." He added, Charlene nodded and pecked Harry on the lips.

"See you later." She said to Harry and Hermione with a small wave, leaving the pair of old friends to walk to class.

"She's nice." Hermione commented with a sideward glance at Harry, who looked down on her with a small smile.

"I know." He replied.

"You really like her don't you?" Hermione asked as they carried on walking to ADADA.

"Of course I do." Harry replied, "I'm so glad that she's a witch. I met her at the barbeque and I kept saying that there could be no way in the world that the wizarding world would accept me being with a muggle girl. And the fact that I wouldn't see her until the summer put me off…" Harry trailed off.

"And now she's here." Hermione finished, Harry nodded.

"I didn't realise that she was famous." He said quietly.

"Well she is a top model in this world." Hermione told him. "Ginny showed me the latest issue of 'Teen Witch' and it has some interesting things in it."

"Hermione, I don't really want to know about what sort of things girls talk about." Harry stated, Hermione rolled her eyes and lightly hit his arm.

"If you'd've let me finish, you would have heard me tell you that there was an interview with her that was taken on August the twentieth." Hermione stated, Harry frowned.

"Point being?" He asked, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It has some very interesting things in it, namely some mention of you." She told him, Harry stopped walking for a moment.

"Me?" He asked, Hermione nodded.

"I'll show you the article later." She told him as they approached the ADADA classroom.

Harry held the door open for Hermione as he entered and was shocked at the changes of the room. The wood rafters that decorated the ceiling had all been painted an extremely dark burgundy and all of the desks had been altered to be made a nice rosewood that shone red as the bright light filtered through the high windows.

The Professor's rosewood desk had a few books and papers littered on it and a small pot of spare quills.

"She likes red." Hermione observed unnecessarily, Harry snorted and sat down near the back of the classroom with her. They chatted quietly to each other about Hermione's summer and what she had overheard in Order HQ; then the new Professor entered calmly. She set her briefcase by her desk and perched herself on the edge of it.

Flashing a smile across the classroom at her NEWT level students she started.

"Morning, I'm Professor Alston and I hope you had a good time in potions those of you who just had it." She said jovially, Harry and some of the others groaned and she giggled slightly, Harry looked strait at her and realised she was looking into the eyes of every student in the classroom –as if reading their minds through them- though another thing Harry realised was that when she got to Hermione, she completely skipped him and looked at the Hufflepuff girl sitting next to him. He frowned slightly but listened to what she had to say.

"Today we shall be just getting to know each other and I'll run you over what we shall be covering in this exclusive new course." Alston stated. "So, any of you have any questions to ask me first?" A few hesitant hands rose. "You." She nodded, "What's your name first."

"Lisa Turpin, Professor." The girl told the teacher, who nodded for her to continue. "Did you come to Hogwarts?"

"Yes I did." Alston said with the faintest smile on her face, like she was reminiscing. "I was friends with the biggest pranksters ever."

"I doubt." Hermione whispered to Harry, who snorted slightly.

"What house were you in?" Malfoy called out, Alston looked at him and smirked.

"Let me guess, your Draco." She stated, Malfoy looked a little smug. "Your fathers a bad man, I sincerely hope you don't end up like him." She stated with pity towards the shocked blond. "I'm not going to tell you what house I was in, I don't want unfair prejudices now do I?" Hermione contemplated what the teacher had said and smiled at Harry.

"She's smart." She whispered to him, Harry nodded absentmindedly, still wondering why she refused to look at him. Every time her gaze went in his direction, she'd look at the spot behind him or look away.

"Anything else you want to know?" She asked, another student put their hand up. "Yes Miss…"

"Blaise Zabini." The naturally beautiful Slytherin with long silky black hair that was in a high ponytail tied with a green and silver ribbon replied, "You have children don't you? I heard Professor Snape say something about it." Alston's eyes lit up with mirth.

"Oh, he was a _little_ annoyed that I made him baby-sit my son." Alston informed with a laugh.

"Why would _Snape_ look after _your_ children?" Malfoy sneered.

"One, It's _Professor_ Snape and two… because he's my elder brother." Alston replied, the class looked shocked.

"But- but your not a Snape!" One of the small class exclaimed, Alston nodded.

"I know that, I took my mothers name, whilst Sev took our fathers." She replied intelligently, "So if he speaks of his _incorrigible nephew_, that'll be my son Jake." She said with another laugh. "Any more questions?" No hands went up, "Okay, then I'll explain what these next two years shall be like for you poor suffering souls." She said cheerfully. "The first module we shall be studying is…."

The rest of the lesson went pretty quickly after that and Alston let them ask her some questions on some various modules and she briefly quizzed the class as a whole before the bell rang for lunch.

"Mr Potter, could you stay behind please?" Alston requested, Harry shrugged at Hermione's questioning glance and indicate for her to go ahead.

As the last few students filtered from the room, Harry slowly approached Alston's desk.

"Mr Potter… Harry…" Alston's voice cracked a bit and she still refused to look him in the eye, "Maybe you could come to my office tonight at eight? Only briefly, I just… need to… speak to you about something." She stated, still not looking Harry in the eye, he nodded slightly.

"Okay Professor." He replied hesitantly, and then left. He hurried from the classroom to get down to lunch and Hermione followed him from where she was trying to 'listen in' on the conversation.

"What did she want?" Hermione asked after a moment of silence.

"Eavesdropper." Harry accused, Hermione smiled a tiny bit.

"Eavesdropper is such a strong word." She stated innocently, Harry snorted. "What did she want?" Hermione repeated.

"She wants me to go to her office at eight tonight to tell me something." Harry replied thoughtfully.

"Tell you something? Like what?" Hermione asked, Harry shrugged and let her ramble her suggestions of what Alston wanted at him on their way to the Great Hall.

"Hey guys." Harry greeted as he sat down next to Charlene, he pecked her on the lips and started filling his plate with cheese sandwiches.

"How were your classes?" Ron asked after swallowing a mouthful of food.

"The were alright, though Professor Alston is extremely weird." Harry stated, "She wants me to go to her office at eight tonight, and she won't look me in the eye!"

"That's strange, maybe your just paranoid though Harry?" Ginny suggested, Harry shook his head.

"I know what I saw." Hermione, Ron and Ginny shared un-easy looks at that.

"Well what have you got this afternoon?" Charlene asked perkily, not noticing the exchanged looks.

"Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology." Harry told her.

"I'm in Transfiguration and Herbology with you, Ron is in Herbology with us too." Charlene stated, "We compared timetables in Charms." She added hyperly.

"What are you extremely hyper about?" Harry asked, Ron grinned sheepishly.

"We were revising charms, and I accidentally said the cheering charm wrong, so it has made her very happy." Ron stated apologetically, "It'll die down soon." He reassured, "I hope." Harry shot his friend a glare.

"Didn't you try 'Finite Incantatem'?" Hermione asked, Ron nodded.

"Didn't work." He informed.

"It doesn't matter though!" Charlene exclaimed, "I hardly feel any different!" Harry pulled her back down as she tried to stand on the table.

"Let's get you out of here." He said calmly, Hermione grabbed some sandwiches and Ron grabbed Hermione's bag and the three left with one very hyper Charlene.

"Lets go down to the kitchens and ask Dobby if he has any coffee." Hermione suggested.

"Coffee?" Ron asked, "Why coffee?"

"Because that's what you're meant to give a person when their drunk so that they sober up, she might feel a little more normal after some coffee." Hermione explained impatiently.

"She's not drunk though." Ron pointed out, Hermione rolled her eyes but said nothing as she grabbed Charlene's wrist and dragged her down to the kitchens as the Colourmorphus kept babbling about something or another.

Hermione tickled the pear on the picture and entered the kitchens, the house-elves all crowded around her and Charlene quickly.

"Please can I just get a coffee maybe? For Charlene?" Hermione asked the house-elves.

"Of course!" One exclaimed and it hurried around the kitchen preparing the drink.

Hermione sat Charlene down and took a seat for herself.

"…and another time when I was drunk I jumped into the hotel pool from my room on the third floor and-and-and it hurt when I landed but I didn't care…" Harry covered Charlene's mouth and sat down next to her.

"Calm down." He told her softly, "We're just grabbing a coffee for you." He told her, Charlene nodded and pretended to zip her mouth shut. That solution didn't work for very long though.

The house-elf came back with the coffee and handed it to the still hyper Charlene, Ron was getting lots of sandwiches from the house-elves and Hermione was talking to Winky.

"Mr Harry Potter Sir!" Came an extremely high-pitched voice, Harry grinned at his magical friend.

"Hiya Dobby!" He said, "How did you like your holidays?" He asked.

"Oh Dobby thought it were great Mr Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby exclaimed, "Dobby and Winky went travelling we did Mr Harry Potter Sir!"

"Just call me Harry, Dobby." Harry said to his friend, Charlene was quickly sobering up with her strong coffee.

"Of course Harry Sir." Dobby replied, Charlene giggled.

"That sounds so sweet." She stated, "Hi, I'm Charlene." She held out her hand to Dobby who proudly shook it.

"I'm Dobby, Harry Potter freed Dobby from the Malfoy's he did." Dobby stated, "Now Dobby works for Mr Dumbledore and Fred and George Wheezy." Hermione turned around at the mention of Fred and George, as did Ron.

"What was that Dobby?" Hermione asked demandingly.

"Dobby has a job with Fred and George Wheezy." Dobby repeated a little uncertainly.

"Do they pay you?" Hermione asked, Dobby nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yes Miss Hermy, they pay Dobby a knut every hour!" He replied, Hermione looked furious.

"A knut?" She inquired.

"Yes yes Miss Hermy, they wanted Dobby to have galleon every hour but Dobby didn't want that." Dobby stated, "Dobby likes work and is saving to buy more socks!"

"That's great Dobby." Ron stated, "But we had better get going to class."

"See you later Dobby." Harry said, "And thanks for the coffee."

"Bye Mr Harry Potter Sir and his Miss!" Dobby exclaimed, both Harry and Charlene blushed at that as they closed the door. Ron and Hermione were stifling their laughter.

"Oh har de har." Harry muttered as he lightly held Charlene's hand when they started walking.

"We had better head to our classes." Hermione stated, the others nodded and they spilt up at various times. Ron and Charlene to DADA, Hermione to Arithmancy and Harry wandered to Charms.

Like Ron, Harry practiced the cheering charm over and over again on Seamus Finnegan; they were both mending their friendship slowly and it pleased Harry that his mother was now a member of the Order of the Phoenix, like so many other's who were turning to Dumbledore.

After Charms Harry headed towards his Transfiguration lesson which he shared with Hermione and Charlene.

He walked solemnly to the classroom thinking about the events of the past five years. How Quirrel had fooled them all; how Tom Riddle had trapped Ginny in his wicked ways; how Barty Crouch had played impostor of Moody and finally, how Sirius Black, his God-Father, had died to the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Hiya Harry!" Someone called up ahead; Harry looked up and saw Charlene and Hermione lining up outside of the Transfiguration classroom.

"Hey." Harry replied with a little smile. Hermione looked a bit concerned but Harry just ignored it and pecked Charlene on the lips and stood beside them waiting for class.

"Oh look, Potter's got himself a _girlfriend_." Sneered a cold voice, Harry turned and glared at the white blond haired teen in front of him. He was about to retort but someone else beat him to it.

"What? Are you jealous?" Hermione tormented, Malfoy snorted.

"As if." He replied with a glare at Hermione, who laughed sarcastically.

"I thought so," She continued as if he hadn't spoken, "I mean, who wouldn't be jealous of the super-model girlfriend?" She asked mocking, Malfoy seethed.

"Shut it Mudblood." He said lowly, Hermione glared at him, as did most of the others there.

"You want me to scrub your mouth out with soap Malfoy?" Charlene asked rhetorically with an incredible fire of hate burning in her eyes, she hardly knew _of_ him and she hated him already.

"You wouldn't know the spell, you're just a little Play-Wiz model with an overly large head." Malfoy reposted. Harry now looked livid.

"Take that back." He snarled angrily, Malfoy smirked.

"Have I now angered Precious Potter?" He retaliated, "You and you Mudblood friend and Play-Wiz model girlfri-"

"Scourify!" Charlene exclaimed, pointing her wand to Malfoy's mouth. Foam and bubbles appeared and dribbled down his chin as he coughed up more bubbles, Charlene stopped her spell soon afterwards. "Apologise." She demanded. "If not to me then to Hermione." Malfoy glared and spat the rest of the bubbles at her feet. "Apologise or I'll make more embarrassing things happen Malfoy." She stated, "I have not _once_ modelled for Play-Wiz and I shall not hear that foul word come out of your dirty mouth _ever_ again." She stated. "Understood?"

"What's going on here?" McGonnagal demanded, seeing the bubbles on the floor and the front of Malfoy's robes.

"I'm teaching him a lesson." Charlene stated angrily, and with that she spun on her heel and entered the Transfiguration classroom, leaving the class and McGonnagal speechless.

"Ten points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin. Now enter the classroom." The aging woman demanded. The class obliged and all took seats around the class. "I want to see Mr Malfoy, Miss Therney, Mr Potter and Miss Granger after class.

"Now today I shall be explaining the course among other optional classes that can be taken to improve on your Transfiguration." McGonnagal told them. "Now, for the first term up until Halloween we shall be studying animal to animal transfiguration. Now this process is extremely hard and requires the casters ultimate attention…" McGonnagal carried on to explain the rest of that year's tasks and also explained some new optional classes that were to be offered, in Transfiguration and other subjects.

The class started to file out and as promised, Harry, Charlene, Hermione and Malfoy were kept back. McGonnagal scrutinized the four with lowered glasses, making her even more imposing.

"Now," She started, "I have all afternoon to do this, I want the whole truth of what was happening before my class." The four all started talking at once. "Quiet!" She exclaimed, "Mr Malfoy, your opinion first please."

"Professor, I was merely lining up for your class when these three attacked me-"

"Bull-"

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, stopping him finishing his word.

"He's lying!" Harry shouted.

"Then what did happen Mr Potter?" McGonnagal asked.

"He was trying to provoke me." Harry stated confidently, "Hermione and Charlene stuck up for me so he started on them too. Charlene…" Harry nervously glanced at Charlene who stood proud, an excellent mask of indifference covering her face.

"What did Miss Therney do?" McGonnagal asked with a glance at both Harry and Charlene.

"I washed his foul mouth out." Charlene stated, defiantly staring McGonnagal in the eye.

"She cast a common house-elf spell on me!" Malfoy shouted angrily, McGonnagal looked slightly curious.

"Oh?" She inquired.

"I cast a Scouring Charm on him Professor. I was teaching him a lesson." Charlene said, Harry swore he saw a flicker of a smile on McGonnagal's face.

"I see." She muttered, "Well, Mr Malfoy, please proceed to your next class whilst I deal with these three." Malfoy smirked contentedly as he left. The door shut behind him and McGonnagal turned back to the other three. "A further five points from Gryffindor Miss Therney. You may go." Harry looked amazed and let Charlene pull him out. "Oh, and Miss Therney." Charlene turned back to McGonnagal. "Welcome to Gryffindor.

"Thank you Professor." Charlene said with a smile, she once again had to pull Harry from the classroom as he seemed in shock.

"Well, you two have Herbology, so I'll see you later." Hermione stated as she walked off.

"We had better go because we're already late." Charlene stated, Harry merely nodded and they rushed to Herbology.

They slipped into the class and sat in the seats saved for them by Ron and Neville.

"Where were you?" Ron asked, "Neville said that McGonnagal kept you back.

"Yeah, she did." Harry affirmed with a small nod. "I'll tell you later." He added as he noticed Professor Sprout's glare.

"Don't worry, I told her why you'd be late." Neville stated, Harry nodded and got to work on the strange looking plant they had been given to do something too.

They trudged out of Herbology less than an hour later.

"Man that was bad." Harry muttered, the others nodded in agreement.

"Talk about meanie." Charlene added. "What was that thing anyways?"

"Morfor's Angel." Neville stated.

"More like Devil." Ron muttered, the others smiled slightly.

"Was it meant to bite?" Harry asked, Neville nodded.

"We're lucky that was a seedling." The chubby boy replied, the other three stopped short.

"Seedling?" They simultaneously asked, Neville nodded again. "Then how big is an older plant?"

"Well, that was three foot, so the adult would be…" Neville counted on his fingers, "Ten to twelve foot." Harry, Ron and Charlene went wide-eyed.

"Man that must hurt getting bitten by one of those." She muttered.

"Not really." Neville stated, "Their teeth fall out before they reach five foot and they become really subdued." He informed them.

"Wow, you really do know your plants." Charlene muttered, causing Neville to blush brighter than a Weasley.

"Let's all just hit the showers before dinner please?" Harry asked tiredly, "I still have that meeting with Professor Alston."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Charlene muttered. The four made their way up to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Hi Hermione." They greeted as they stepped into the Common Room. "How was… um…"

"Charms was great Ron, thanks for asking." Hermione said with a slight smile at him, a smile that the others hadn't missed, especially with the lop-sided grin that Ron returned to the smile.

"I'm going to hit the showers and so is Hermione." Charlene stated, she walked off and grabbed Hermione's arm on the way past towards the girls dorms.

"Hey! I don't need a shower!" Hermione exclaimed as Charlene pulled her up the stairs.

Ron shook his head. "Girls." He muttered.

"Can never understand them." Neville added, to which the other two agreed.

"We should head for the showers ourselves." Harry stated, "We stink of dragon poo." He added as he sniffed at his robes with a disgusted look.

"Yeah." Ron agreed. The three headed for their dorm room.

A hyper Charlene pulled Hermione unwillingly into her dorm. Ginny had met them on the stairs and followed them up. Luckily for them, Lavender and Parvati weren't in their dorms at that time.

Charlene sat Hermione down on her bed and plonked down next to her after pulling off her robe. Ginny sat on the floor in front of them.

"So tell." Charlene said demandingly, giving Hermione a piercing stare, Ginny looked confused.

"What is that meant to mean?" Hermione asked, Charlene rolled her eyes.

"Please, I've known you for a day and I can still see what's going on between you and Ron." She replied, at to which Ginny giggled and Hermione blushed bright red. "Well?"

"There's nothing to tell." Hermione stated, looking down to hide her blush.

"Hermione. He's my _brother_, I can tell these things and something's going on." Ginny said. "The same something that was happening all summer." She added, causing Hermione to blush even more.

"All summer?" Charlene asked.

"Yeah, I stayed at Ginny's house." Hermione covered, Charlene nodded in recognition.

"Oh." She muttered. "Anything happen then?"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed, blushing a deeper red that beat that of the Weasley's hair. "We just comforted each other and talked a lot. He's one of my best friends, I'm allowed to talk to him!"

"Hermione he seriously likes you, that's so obvious." Charlene stated, "And what's more obvious is that you like him too!"

"I don't!" Hermione exclaimed, "Wait, he likes me?" Ginny and Charlene smirked; they'd hit the nerve.

"Yep, and it's so obvious, it could be miles away and we'd still see." Ginny stated.

"And the only problem is that you two don't see it." Charlene said.

"It would be great, he needs a girlfriend." Ginny said.

"And you seem like the perfect candidate, I mean, we all saw how you two were on the train yesterday." Charlene added. "I know that we've only just met each other, but even as an outsider to your group I can tell that you both like each other."

"One, me and Ron were being friendly on the train yesterday and two, you're _not_ an outsider, and you fit right in our little group that's rapidly expanding." Hermione said to her new friend.

"One, you and Ron would make a cute couple and two, can I fit in the group somewhere too?" Someone said from the door, they turned and saw Sara who looked a little shy.

"Sure, come sit down with us." Hermione said with a smile to the younger girl, who came in with a brilliant smile, her messy black hair pulled up into a ponytail with a dark red band.

"Did you want anything in particular or did you just happen to walk by and eavesdrop on our conversation?" Ginny asked with a grin, Sara smiled mischievously.

"Eavesdrop is such a strong word." She said with innocence, Hermione giggled a bit.

"I said that to Harry earlier." She explained briefly.

"So back to our original topic." Charlene stated with a grin.

"Look, me and Ron aren't getting together anytime soon." Hermione stated a little sadly, "We always argue and it wouldn't work out."

"Why wouldn't it?" Sara asked, "You argue because you're both really wanting to be more than friends."

"Listen to the eleven year old who's much more mature than us." Ginny stated, they burst into more giggles.

"Seriously though, you and Ron would make a good couple." Charlene told Hermione, who looked apprehensive.

"Well…"

"If you need help getting together with him, we're here to help!" Sara exclaimed.

"Thanks." Hermione said with a smile, "We better finish here because Charlene needs a shower." She added impishly.

"Hey!" Charlene exclaimed, lightly pushing Hermione as she got up and grabbed her shower things. "I may smell but it's not my fault, I had to carry around dragon dung."

"Ooh, bad luck." Ginny muttered. "I had better get going, I have summer work to finish."

"I thought you had done it all?" Hermione asked the redhead, who shook her head slightly.

"Nope, that's just what I told you." Ginny stated and she quickly evaded Hermione's wrath by leaving the room.

"I'm going to find Lauryn." Sara said as she left the room, "See you later!"

"Bye Sara." Hermione said softly as the door closed. "She is a lot like Harry was at first." She murmured to herself. "Lets hope she doesn't have to go through what he went through."

Dinner had to have been a little interesting on the first day back. It seemed that Malfoy took up his time glaring at Harry and the Gang who just ignored him and had a great time talking about their days, especially Sara who was already complaining about Snape.

Several DA members had approached Harry during the meal to ask about whether or not the club was to reform; Harry had told them all that if they wanted he could arrange something, as long as it stayed the secret society it was before, with only loyal members.

A few hours later, Harry found himself heading towards the DADA office to see Professor Alston.

He didn't really know how he could be in trouble for doing nothing, though she hadn't said that she was in trouble so he had some hope.

He knocked on the door of the office and heard laughter from inside of the office; Alston opened the door and looked shocked to see Harry there.

"Mr Potter, I didn't expect you until eight." She said, and then looked down at her watch, "Oh, we seem to have lost track of time Remus." She stated as she let Harry into the room, Harry looked a little shocked as he saw the last living Marauder sitting on a settee with a young boy of around three with his hair a shade darker than Alston's light brown nearly blond hair and a tiny wizarding robe on that was dark green with a pattern of a dragon sewn on in gold up the whole of the left side. He had light blue eyes, which made him look like a little angel.

"Remus? What're you doing here?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I brought Jake here to see Lessi." Remus replied with a smile, "How was your first day of classes?"

"Err, great." Harry replied and then looked confusedly between Remus and Alston.

"Harry, Alessandria needs to tell you something." Remus stated seriously, Alston was still refusing to look Harry in the eye and stared at a point to the left of his head.

"Harry I- I was a friend of your mothers." She stated, finally she glanced into his eyes and tears leaked from her eyes. "Actually, she was my best friend and- and I'm so sorry I didn't take you in like I was meant too." She turned away from his eyes again and small sobs escaped her throat. Jake was looking at Harry confusedly with his head tilted to one side whilst Remus stared longingly at Alston; as if he wanted to embrace her and never let go.

"My Mother's best friend?" Harry repeated, Alston nodded. "That wasn't what I expected."

"Did you think you had detention for no reason then?" Alston asked with a sniffle and slight giggle.

"Well…"

"You thought I'd give you detention on your first day back?" She repeated incredulously.

"Don't blame me! Your Snape's sister and he hates me!" Harry exclaimed, Alston rolled her eyes and wiped her remaining tears away.

"Just ignore him Harry." She advised, "He's just a big bully who doesn't like us Gryffindor's."

"You're a Gryffindor?" Harry asked, Alston nodded.

"Why else would most of my classroom be red?" She asked, "Well, actually, that was just to annoy Sev but would a Slytherin colour their room Gryffindor red and have red furniture?"

"You make a point." Harry muttered. They were silent for a moment.

"How are you Harry?" Remus asked hesitantly.

"I'm good." Harry replied, "You?"

"The same as you I expect." Remus stated, eying Harry disbelievingly. "You know that I'm always here if you need anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know." Harry muttered.

"Hey, I'll be here also." Alston stated with an intense sense of honesty in her voice. "And I'm sure that Jake would be too." She added with a small smile as the confused little boy hid behind Remus' legs with a reproachful look at Harry.

"You should bring him to class." Harry said, smiling slightly at Jake. "You'd get thousands of girls wanting to baby-sit." Remus and Alston both chuckled.

"I doubt he'd enter a room full of students." Remus stated, "He's really shy. As you can probably tell." Remus picked Jake up and walked over to where Alston and Harry were standing.

"Jake, this is Harry." Alston said softly to the little angel, "Are you gonna say hi to him?" Jake looked at Harry shyly.

"Hi." He said quietly, Harry smiled.

"Hiya Jake." He replied with a smile, which the boy returned.

Harry spent another hour or two in Alston's office talking with his professor, her son and Remus. They told him a few stories of their school days and as he left due to curfew, he was invited back so he could get to know them properly.

He walked back to his house tower in the best mood he had been in since Sirius' untimely death.

**AN: So I've had to make another chapter and am now rethinking this storyline and making it more detailed AND adding new ideas. This story is jam-packed full of random ideas though I doubt that I will use all of them in this story or I'll have nothing left for the sequel!**

**Review, Flame and Give me Advice on writing, whatever! Just make sure that if you flame you give me a decent reason and not just 'This story sucks', then I can at least IMPROVE on my mistakes. Thankies as Sammy would say!**


	7. Chapter 7 Missing

**AN: Okay, so I've been having some trouble writing this, and lack of time (or it's spent doing other things like playing Transport Tycoon, which I must say that I am indeed the Tycoon at that game), I am actually going to take the time to personally thank my reviewers though I normally don't do this on and only on , though due to lack of reviews I am. Lol. As long as I have readers who appreciate my work I'm fine.**

**Max: Thanx for the review, the legal sex joke I actually modified from another story, I know it's not really original but I'm glad you liked it! About Cho Chang, well, Harry did see her at least…**

**Sun-star-n-moon22: Thanx for reviewing! I like Harry OC fics too but I really like Harry/Ginny ones. Harry and Hermione fics are good if they are properly written and I also like Harry/Blaise Zabini fics (see below).**

**Keeper Darius: Thanx for the review!**

**Prof. Spider: I didn't really write a new song due to the fact that I couldn't think of one; I just put in the PMP one. Soz.**

**Harrie: :D I changed my pen name cause I'm normally just known as Nixi anywayz, so it's easier. Thanx for reviewing though!**

**Torifire126: I couldn't remember if Snape required an O or EE, I was sure its EE but never mind, thanx for the note of it. About Charlene, :p, well, that was something that took me ages to decide. She was originally a minor character that Harry flirted with just for the main purpose of showing Ron up in a later chapter (in the second plot for this story where Harry was dating Ginny), the role of Harry's girlfriend originally belonged to Blaise Zabini, then Ginny Weasley, then Charlene, so just imagine how many plots I had to re-write. Lol, silly me.**

**Btw, I have a Yahoo! Group. It's tiny but I'm working on it at all spare moments (which isn't often). You can also see my very botched up attempts at HTML! How fun! Lol, note the sarcasm…**

**Anywayz, on with the story…**

Chapter 7 – Missing 

Harry sat with Professor Alessandria Alston, Remus and Ron, and also Hermione, Sara and Charlene who were playing with Jake in Alessandria's smallish quarters (or reading Alessandria's huge DADA books in Hermione's case).

This had become like routine for them over the past few weeks back into term and Remus visited daily, though they only met up in the quite reasonably sized living room of the Professor, who said that her elder brothers huge and empty quarters were incredibly annoying and that she preferred her small and cosy ones.

Charlene now knew of the Order as her mother and stepfather had recently been approached by Dumbledore about it and though she thought Quinton wasn't really trustworthy, she was assured that they didn't know too much (though at least her suspicions on Quinton being a squib were right, he was now a 'primary researcher' of the Order). She also knew of Sirius and the Marauders. Sara knew of the Marauders and Order also, though she didn't understand the threat to the wizarding world as much as the others did.

"So how is school life treating you so far Sara?" Remus asked, he had gotten to know her recently and he treated her like he would Harry as they acted so much like brother and sister. He wondered if this would be how Harry would treat a blood brother or sister if he had had the chance to have one.

"It's alright." She said softly as she set a little muggle toy car rolling across the ground for Jake to dash after. "I miss my sister though strangely enough." She added, and then glanced down at Jake, "But he's cool enough, and so is Harry so I don't miss her as much." Harry, who had been talking with Ron about Quidditch looked up as he heard his name mentioned.

"What about me?" He asked.

"I just said that I don't miss Dawn as much because of you and Jake." Sara stated, Harry grinned.

"Thanks." He said before turning back to his conversation with the red head.

"Isn't Sara's curfew soon?" Alessandria asked reprimandingly as she glanced at her watch that read eight twenty-two, and Sara's curfew to be in Gryffindor Tower was eight-thirty.

"Yeah but we have the invisibility cloak. Unless you want us to head back already?" Hermione said questioningly, the elder woman shook her head.

"You can stay, I just wanted to know how you were going to hide her." She stated.

"Oh." Hermione muttered under her breath.

"Professor I was having trouble with my homework." Sara said to Alessandria after a small moments silence.

"Oh? What were you having trouble with?" Alessandria asked.

"You said that we had to list what five differences that a werewolf has from a normal wolf." Sara told her and Alessandria nodded for her to continue, "Well I have the snout shape, pupils of the eyes and tufted tail, but I can't remember the other two."

"Wasn't that question on our OWL exam?" Ron asked.

"Yes it was." Hermione said as she looked like she was about to go into full lecture mode.

"It was on mine and Lessa's too." Remus told them with a grin which Harry mirrored.

"Hey Remus, d'you think you managed to get all of the signs?" He asked with mock concern, Remus shook his head with a laugh.

"That's exactly what James said to me." He stated.

"Where d'you think I got it from?" Harry asked, Alessandria looked a little shocked. "I like how you answered it though."

"Oh yes, it went something like One: He's sitting in my chair, Two: He's wearing my clothes, Three: His name is Remus Lupin." Remus said with a grin as they all laughed at the old joke.

"How did you know what Remus said, Harry?" Alessandria asked curiously, though a small smile graced her features. Harry grimaced slightly.

"Well," He said slowly, "I sort of like accidentally went into your brothers pensive and saw his worst memory." He continued quickly.

"His worst memory?" Alessandria muttered, her eyes then widened slightly, "Not the one after the DADA exam in fifth year?" She asked, Harry nodded silently. "Oh gosh, that must've been horrible. Watching your Dad do something like that."

"Yeah, it was. But Sirius and Remus told me not to worry about it too much." Harry told her, he took a breath as he thought of his deceased Godfather.

"Don't forget what we said either." Remus said, "I've got thousands of memories of your Dad that I could show you that are much better than that one."

"Why don't you then Rem?" Alessandria asked, Remus smiled at the nickname that she had given him years ago.

"I haven't got a pensive and I'm sure that Severus won't let me use his." He replied with a smile at her.

"I could try get it off of him." Alessandria suggested.

"Don't worry, I know my parents were good people already." Harry said with a smile. "So what are the other two signs? I've forgotten."

"Enlarged canines and thinner legs." Hermione said without looking up from the large book she had sitting in front of her in her position on the floor. Sara quickly pulled a muggle pen and paper from her bag and jotted the two answers down. Ron looked confusedly at the pen.

"What's that?" He asked curiously, Sara looked up at him with a strange expression on her face.

"Erm, a pen?" She replied hesitantly with an incredulous glance at Harry who laughed.

"Do remember that he's a pure-blooded wizard Sara." He said to his little sister.

"So he doesn't know what a pen is?" Sara asked.

"Nope, now pass it to me so I can get a better look." Ron demanded, the girls giggled and Sara threw the pen to Ron, who caught it and started drawing on his hand to test it.

They all sat in a comfortable silence for a moment and with the only sounds being Hermione turning the pages of the advanced DADA book from Alessandria's bookshelf and Jake, Charlene and Sara playing with the toy cars.

Banging on the wall of the portrait hole startled them all from their peaceful silence, causing both Jake and Sara to jump with shock.

"Sandi!" Someone shouted frustratedly, Alessandria giggled and heaved herself up from the plush settee and opened the portrait hole, revealing one very annoyed looking Snape.

"Hiya Sev." Alessandria said perkily, Snape glared.

"Since when did you change your damn password?" He said demandingly.

"Hello Sandi, how are you today? Why I'm fine, thanks for asking Sev." Alessandria said sarcastically, Snape rolled his eyes.

"Evening Sandi, how are you today?" He asked in a bored tone.

"I'm great." Alessandria replied huffily as she spun around with a swish of her flaring sapphire robes and collapsed back onto her dark red settee. Snape glanced at all of the people in the room.

"Lupin." He said with a nod at Remus.

"Severus." Remus replied with a nod. Snape sneered at Sara, who looked a little frightened.

"Shouldn't she be in her dorm?" He questioned, "Ten points off of Gryffindor for breaking school rules."

"Ten points to Gryffindor because I like her." Alessandria retorted, her gaze never leaving her brothers eyes as she annoyed him, "Now what did you want?"

"I wanted those lacewing flies which you stole so that you could feed your bloody kneazle." Snape snarled, "And I know that you took them as you were the one complaining about it earlier today."

"Why Sev, how could you accuse me of such a thing?" Alessandria asked innocently, a little _too_ innocently, Snape glared. "Okay okay, Joli-Belle is only a kitten! I needed to feed her something!" Alessandria said with a pout, "You don't want her to starve do you?"

"Lacewing flies now." Snape demanded with one of his hands out, Alessandria rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from the settee again.

"You have a kneazle?" Hermione asked, Alessandria nodded, "Can I have a look at it? Crookshank's is meant to be half-kneazle and I've never really had a chance to study a proper one."

"Oh, well that's okay because when she's older Joli is coming to class." Alessandria stated, "Let me just get her." She left the room and went into her bedroom and came out a moment later with a jar in one hand and a small fluffy thing in her other arm. She handed the jar to Snape reluctantly and readjusted the bundle in her arm so that she could hand it to Hermione, who reached up and carefully took it.

"Oh she's adorable!" Hermione squealed, in her arms was a small white kitten with black spots. It yawned and blinked it's large green eyes at her and looked around. Alessandria smiled at the three girls who crowded around the small creature, as well as her son who was trying to grasp the kneazle's hairs, though Charlene was thankfully stopping him.

Harry and Ron looked over and even they had to admit that the kneazle was cute.

"How old is she?" Sara asked curiously, Snape left with his jar of lacewings and a slam of the portrait hole (which made Jake jump again).

"She's about six weeks, I've been looking after her since she was born." Alessandria told the girls, "And as I said earlier she's called Joli-Belle."

"Pretty-Beautiful?" Charlene inquired, "Nice name." She added with a small smirk.

"Well the words sound nice." Alessandria defended when they started laughing. "In French at least."

"It's not as bad as Barney." Harry stated, Sara looked offended.

"Hey, I like that name and it suits him!" She exclaimed, talking about her black kitten which was about three months old now and was found chasing mice around Gryffindor Tower most of the time.

They quickly sobered up and Alessandria put Jake to bed as he was nearly sleeping on his feet. She came back during the conversation about Quidditch, surprisingly enough.

"…So we have filled the spots on the team." Ron was saying to Remus.

"Oh? Anyone I know?" Remus asked, Harry and Ron nodded.

"You might know them." Ron stated with a smirk.

"We just needed to replace Alicia and Angelina." Harry explained, "Well Ginny tried out and she's an excellent chaser, so she got on the team and also a third year called Natalie MacDonald. You won't know her though. We also have mad up a reserve team, as we seem to need one."

"Ginny got onto the team?" Remus asked, "Well, I knew that you'd probably be having your position back but it's great that she's still allowed on the team."

"Who knew she was so great at playing Chaser?" Ron asked rhetorically, "She's bloody brilliant out there!"

"Well if you and your insolent brothers actually let her play from time to time you'd have known." Hermione stated, she looked at her watch. "Anyways, we had better head back, I have homework to get done."

"You already finished all the work that's due in this week!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well I have that Potions essay that needs doing." Hermione retorted.

"Didn't we just get that on Friday?" Harry asked.

"Yes but better done early than done at the last minute." Hermione retorted, Ron and Harry rolled their eyes as Harry covered Sara with the cloak. Charlene placed the tiny kitten down carefully into Alessandria's arms and picked up her things.

"See you tomorrow Professor, bye Remus." Harry said with a wave as he left. Sara's disembodied voice said goodbye also, as did the other teens and they left.

"It's great that Harry is happy." Alessandria said softly to Remus as she curled her feet underneath her and snuggled into his side.

"Yeah." Remus agreed quickly and awkwardly, "I have to go back to HQ now, I promised Tonks I wouldn't leave her by herself tonight." He added then shot up off of the chair, causing Alessandria to fall over as he had been holding her up.

"Oh, well you could stay a little longer." Alessandria stated, Remus shook his head.

"No, I had better head back." He said, "I'll pick up Jake tomorrow morning." And then he flooed out. Alessandria sighed and headed to bed, Jake was currently asleep in the middle of her double bed, after she had changed she lifted up the covers and slipped in carefully as not to wake him. Brushing the hair back from his face she sighed.

"One day we're going to be a family; me, you and Remus." She whispered before settling an arm over the two year old and falling into a peaceful slumber.

"Morning." Ron greeted the girls with a yawn.

"Morning Ron, morning Harry." Hermione replied absentmindedly; her face was hidden behind the Daily Prophet.

"You don't still read that rubbish do you?" Ron asked with disgust as Harry pecked Charlene on the cheek and sat down.

"It has information." Hermione replied, Ron scoffed.

"Like _what_? Who Harry's currently scamming?" He asked sarcastically.

"No, like this." Hermione turned the newspaper round and showed the others the headline:

_Marie Keriney Goes Missing!_

"Isn't that Bill's new girlfriend?" Ron asked incredulously, Hermione nodded and read the article out loud to them.

"_Marie Keriney- primary researcher in Gringott's Discovery Department- has gone missing. She was last seen a few nights ago on a date with Bill Weasley- a leading Curse Breaker in Gringott's Discovery Department- in muggle London._

_Marie is presumed kidnapped by those close to her, and when Bill Weasley was asked for a comment on his girlfriend's situation, he replied that he had no idea as to what was going on. Though this reporter highly doubts that._

_Marie's grandparents, Michelle and Michael Keriney, who had been explorers a while back, last researched the Green Flame Torch, an ancient mythical entity. It seems that Marie shares her Grandparents life-long passion for the magical artefacts of the ancient world as she spends most of her time in Egypt and other countries of ancient interest, though she has recently come back home to 'settle down in her crazy ways'._

_Your special correspondent,_

_Rita Skeeter._"

"Well, at least she's reporting something of interest for once." Ron stated, he looked in thought. "Though what the hell does she mean by '_this reporter highly doubts that_'?" He exclaimed, re-reading the paper over Hermione's shoulder.

"Why would Voldemort want Bill's girlfriend?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron.

"Plenty of reasons," Hermione stated, "She's a member of the Order, she works in Gringotts, she's close to Bill, and Voldemort knows you consider the Weasley's family-"

"Yes but I don't think he's that stupid, he knows that I'm in school, and I don't even know the woman, I hardly even know Bill!" Harry interrupted.

"It was a suggestion." Hermione mumbled.

"Sorry." Harry said sheepishly.

"We had better talk about this later as now we should head to class." Charlene advised, glancing down at her watch, the others agreed and they all left.

Harry and Hermione waited in class at five past, this was normal, but what wasn't normal was that the professor hadn't turned up yet.

"I wonder where Lessi is, she's never late!" Hermione whispered hurriedly to Harry.

"I know." He replied just as the door was slammed open and a frustrated Alessandria walked in.

The strange thing was, was that she had Jake huddled up on her left side whilst her briefcase was in her right hand.

"Sorry I'm late class." She said hurriedly. "My babysitter didn't turn up."

"Oh he's so cute!" One of the girls at the back squealed.

"He is isn't he?" Alessandria said with a smile at her son, who had buried his head into her shoulder. "Jakey? Wanna sit on Mummy's big desk?" She said, trying to lure him from the death grip he had on her shirt, Jake only shook his head, which made Harry and Hermione laugh. "Argh, Jake, Mummy has work." Alessandria stated as she tried to get Jake off of her, "Remus is so dead." She muttered to herself.

"Need help?" An amused voice came from the door, Alessandria glared at him.

"Professor Lupin!" Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw and some other girls exclaimed.

"Morning." Remus said with a smile at the class before he took Jake from Alessandria, who glared.

"Your late." She stated.

"I overslept." Remus retorted.

"So it took you until ten past nine to get here?" Alessandria asked, "Remus, work is important to me and you told me that you'd be here this morning to pick him up."

"Well I didn't really say what time exactly." Remus said with an innocent look, Alessandria rolled her eyes.

"You want to know how much you are reminding me of Padfoot and Prongs right now?" She stated, "That whole 'cute-little-lost-puppy-dog' was their thing."

"Excuse me?" Remus asked incredulously, "I _own_ that." He stated with a grin, "And it always works on you."

"It does not." Alessandria said with a huff, hitting him lightly on the arm. "Now go, I have a class to teach."

"Okay, I'll see you later?" Remus asked, Alessandria nodded.

"As always, you can't keep him from me that long." She stated, then smoothed back the hair on Jake's forehead and kissed his temple, "Be good for Remus, Baby." Remus walked out of the room with a wave that Jake mirrored.

"Professor, is Professor Lupin your sons Dad?" Su Li of Ravenclaw asked curiously, Alessandria looked shocked before giggling slightly.

"I wish!" She exclaimed, surprising the class.

"He's a monster, why would anybody want him to have a child?" Malfoy sneered, the Slytherin's laughed whilst the rest of the class looked angry, including the professor.

"Mr Malfoy, it is _me_ who runs this class and _me_ who hands out detentions and _me_ who can also kick you out of _my_ class." Alessandria stated, she looked extremely pissed off.

"You couldn't kick me out of a class!" Malfoy said with a little less confidence, "My father would never have that."

"Well I don't give a damn about your _father_," Alessandria spat out the word as if it were poison, "And he does not have any ruling in this school." What she really wanted to say was that Remus would make a better father than Lucius Malfoy ever would; but that could easily make her lose her job. After a few calming breaths she continued. "Now, today we shall be debating Dark Magic in general…."

"… and she showed us some dark magic which she had to go to the ministry just so she could get permission to show it." Hermione concluded as they ate their lunch and talked of their day so far.

"So what do you all have next?" Ron asked, "I've got DADA with Charlene."

"I'm stuck in charms." Harry informed his friends.

"I have arithmancy next. It's going to be fun as we are constructing our own spells with numbers and-"

"You can do that?" Harry asked, Hermione nodded.

"Of course, numbers have magical properties, like languages do. So we are experimenting different languages and numerical properties to create a spell of our choice." She told him matter-of-factly.

"I really wish I studied arithmancy now," Charlene said, "Because then I'd be able to create some decent hair-controlling spells." The others laughed as Charlene eyed her now dark purple locks in distaste with her delicate tanned fingers pulling at it.

"Your hair looks fine." Harry reassured her with a smile and peck on the lips.

"Please! This is the dining table! People trying to eat here!" Ron exclaimed, he jokingly covered both his and Hermione's eyes.

"Ick, scarred for life, scarred for life." Sara repeated, approaching the four with Lauryn and two other first year girls in tow. One of them had blond hair that was cropped short and the other had chestnut brown hair that swung around her lower back.

"Oh ha ha." Harry said sarcastically, he noticed that the brown haired girl behind Sara was looking at him incredulously. "Hi, I'm Harry, Sara's big brother and you'd be…" He trailed off as the girl went wide-eyed. Sara rolled her eyes.

"Guys, meet Helena and Lira. Lira's muggle-born like me." She explained, Harry nodded.

"Nice to meet you both." Hermione said to the girls politely.

"Your Hermione Granger." The brown haired girl who Harry assumed was Helena said to Hermione in awe.

"Yes, I am." Hermione said hesitantly.

"Oh wow! You realise how famous you are in Bulgaria?" Helena asked enthusiastically.

"Famous in Bulgaria?" Hermione asked, Helena nodded.

"My cousin, he goes to Durmstrang, and he says that he's seen _you_ in the paper more often than _he_" She pointed at Harry, "is in there! It must be all of those love scandals and other stuff."

"Oh." Hermione muttered, "That's nice to know, now if you'll excuse me." She got up from her seat and half finished lunch and left with her book.

"Did I say something?"

"Man we're busy tonight." Harry said quietly in their Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Yeah, DA meeting _and_ Quidditch practice." Ron replied in a whisper, Hagrid was telling them about the centaurs in the forest, they thought that anyway, they weren't really listening.

"The DA is growing." Hermione whispered to them.

"I can't wait to go to the first meeting." Charlene told them, "I heard you were a good teacher Harry."

"He's really good actually." Neville put in, "I would never have gotten through the DADA exam without the DA."

"Well you did really well in the Department of Mysteries too." Harry stated confidently, "I could really do with some of you guys help teaching this year, sorry, not you Charlene, I don't know how they'll react to a new girl teaching but I was thinking of splitting the class into groups so the new members work with those at their own level."

"That's a great idea." Hermione beamed, "How are you going to work that out though?"

"Well, I was hoping that you and Ron would take a group, then Neville, Luna and Ginny would also.

"Me?" Neville squeaked.

"Yes you." Harry stated, "You'll do great, especially with that new wand that's suited perfectly for you."

"Okay, I'll try." Neville muttered.

"Good, I'd take the older members whilst you will have the new ones split between you. Then I can find new material for the class with you guys so you won't have to learn it at another time." Harry explained.

"That sounds like a great idea Harry." Hermione complimented. She noticed that the rest of the class had started to pack up and alerted the others, they all said a hasty goodbye to Hagrid and left quickly, Ron had divination in the North Tower next so he prompted them to hurry up so he wouldn't be late, no matter how batty the professor was.

They split up where Ron had to go and they carried on walking to transfiguration. They had been working on animal transfiguration recently and Harry seemed to have mastered it wonderfully; he was even helping Charlene and Neville with it.

At the end of class the four headed for Gryffindor Tower. Harry went up to his dorm to get ready for Quidditch practice when Ron came in, he looked extremely pissed off.

"What is it Ron?" Harry asked his friend.

"Trelawny that's what." Ron grumbled, "She's finally gone off you."

"Oh, that's good." Harry stated.

"But she's all annoying about my death now." Ron continued as if Harry hadn't spoken, Harry winced.

"Sorry mate." He said, grabbing his Firebolt from his trunk he straightened up. "I'll meet you down on the pitch, I have to practice a little."

"See you down there." Ron said with a short wave. Harry let and found Charlene and Hermione waiting in the common room talking to Sara and Lauryn, without their little friends.

"I'm heading down for the pitch now." Harry told them.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked, looking behind Harry and up the boys' staircase.

"Still getting ready, I told him I needed to loosen up a bit." Harry told her, Hermione nodded.

"Okay, I'll wait for him." She said with a smile, Harry and Charlene shared a look but said nothing.

"See you later then Mione." Charlene said with a wave as her and Harry left through the portrait hole.

They walked in silence for half of the way, passing only a few students on their way.

"You know, I think I kinda like seeing you in Quidditch gear." Charlene said with an impish grin, Harry looked at her from the corner of his eye with a small blush.

"I kinda like seeing you in a skirt." He said, Charlene giggled and looked away.

"Harry, aren't the grounds that way?" Charlene asked confusedly, pointing to the corridor they had just left, Harry smirked at her and stepped through a large canvas painting of a fight.

"Or we could take the quicker and more private way." He said with a smirk as he pulled her behind the canvas. Charlene looked shocked at the secret staircase but didn't have time to register anything there because Harry pulled her to him in a passionate kiss.

"Wow." Charlene muttered as she came out of the kiss, she looked down, unable to control the blush that spread across her cheeks. She looked back up and Harry leant his forehead on hers lightly.

"We should do this more often." He said, Charlene nodded dumbly before leaning in for another kiss.

To say they were a little late for Quidditch practice was an understatement, and the looks Harry got from his teammates made him blush, along with what they were saying.

"I thought you wanted to get a gist of flying again?" Ron asked with a smirk, Harry glared at him.

"Don't start." He warned.

"Well, even I saw you leaving the tower twenty minutes early, now you're ten minutes late, what _have_ you been up too?" Ginny asked innocently, Harry blushed and avoided their eyes.

"Start by doing a few laps around the pitch to warm up and then Natalie, Ginny and Katie can practice formations and try get something past Ron, Andrew and Jack, I'm going to put out both bludgers today and you _are_ going to stop the team from getting hit." Harry instructed with a stern look at the pair, who nodded determinedly. "Vicky, Ashanti and Zeek, I want you practicing the formations that I showed you in the changing rooms earlier whilst you try get past DW, Lionel and Seamus, I want you to fly up to the stands and ask Hermione for the balls that will be charmed to fly at you and I want to practice your aim as that's the only thing holding you back. Understood?" The reserve team of Gryffindor nodded and flew off in different directions. Harry then turned and smiled at the fourth year reserve seeker, Jessie Clarke, she had light brown hair that was styled in a bob around her ears and nice blue eyes. "Jessie, I want to see how many balls you can catch." Harry stated, indicating a bag next to him that was full of golf balls. "I'm going to throw them and I want to try and catch them quickly and with style, can't let the team down now can we?" Jessie grinned happily and shot into the air after Harry.

"Oh you won't get rid of us that easily." Ron said, sharing a smirk with his sister before they mounted their brooms and flew off. Charlene had joined Hermione in the stands to watch the practice, though Harry noted from his position high in the air that the Creevey brothers were rapidly making their way towards his girlfriend and best friend. He groaned slightly but left it as he saw Charlene and Hermione start what seemed like a pleasant conversation with the hyperactive brothers.

The practice went smoothly enough and Harry was pleased with the progress that the team had made. He dismissed them and rushed up to Gryffindor Tower with his friends, realising that the DA meeting was in less than an hour and he wanted to get there early to prepare with his 'helpers'.

He had of course, asked for Dumbledore's permission to restart the club and the wizened professor though it a _'splendid'_ idea. Harry had also told the last years group that they were invited those who they thought trustworthy with them, though the same precautions as the year before were to be kept.

Forty minutes later, showered and changed, Harry found himself in the Room of Requirement with Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, Charlene, Sara and Lauryn. The latter three were looking around at the huge room in awe whilst the others went over session plans.

"So we start with the disarming spell this session, then _only_ if our group have it perfected do we move to the stunning?" Ginny repeated, Harry nodded.

"That's how we done it last year, I'm going to be doing a revision like session, so I won't have to go over it with you later." He replied. "Of course, explain to them the other types of spells and charms they'll be studying also." Harry added as an afterthought.

The door then opened and the first lot of people came through the door. It was the remaining Gryffindor's from the year before and more Gryffindor's who had tagged along excitedly (namely the Creevey's friends).

More people flooded into the room and Harry was surprised to see a few younger Slytherin members. He cleared his throat hesitantly as the time for started came to.

"Okay, I'm glad you all made it, either your friends brought you here or you were genuinely curious, it doesn't really matter." He started off, his leadership skills coming back in full force, "We started this last year because of the lack of a… _decent_ education in the Defence against the Dark Arts and after last years members asking I brought the subject to Professor Dumbledore who decided that it was alright to continue.

This time will be a little different from last year so you'll have to bear with us as it's just a testing thing, after this session, if you'd like to come along for another session then you'll have to sign up." Harry turned to Hermione who held up a parchment with a slightly modified charm on, this time, it would hex a person if they attempted to tell a Death Eater about the meetings (or someone with dishonourable intentions) and anyone who signed up wouldn't be able to tell the details of the club to anybody else unless they asked one of the leaders.

"If you wanted to invite somebody to these meetings then you'll have to speak with one of us five leaders for permission and we'll discuss it." Harry continued, "I suppose we should begin now, if last years members would all come over here, then we can see how we are going to split this." The twenty-odd members from the year before went to Harry's side and Harry looked over the 'newbies'. They ranged form houses to years and the turnout surprised him. There were at least thirty new people there, all waiting to be sorted.

"Alright, I'm going to split you into groups and there will be two leaders or three leaders per group; they are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who will lead the first group, then Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood will lead the second group.

Any objections?" Harry finished; no one said anything so he clapped his hands together with a slight smile. "Good, so now I can split you into groups." He divided the newbies into two even groups and sent them off with Hermione and Ron, Ginny and Neville. He then turned to his group, "Okay, we are just going to revise the stuff we learnt last year now, then in the next session we are going to start working on actual duels." The group tittered excitedly. "Okay, so starting with the basics…"

The session went quite well that night and all of the 'newbies' signed to say that they wanted to be permanent members of the DA.

After dinner that evening, the group found themselves once again in Alessandria's quarters.

Remus had yet to show up, which was leaving the professor frantic with worry.

"He is _never_ late." Alessandria muttered to herself.

"He was this morning." Harry stated, Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and shot him a glare.

"He probably just caught up or something." Charlene stated.

As if on cue, Remus tumbled out of the fireplace with Jake in his arms.

"You're late!" Alessandria exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know." Remus replied with a sigh, Alessandria took Jake from him.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Marie's gone missing." Remus stated.

"What?" Hermione asked, "Marie Keriney? The one in the paper this morning?"

"It was in the paper too?" Alessandria asked, "Merlin, that shows how late I was this morning." She added with a wince.

"I have the article somewhere in my folder." Hermione stated, pulling her bag over to herself and rummaging through it. She took out a blue folder and fished a cutting from it.

"You kept the article?" Harry asked, Hermione nodded at him.

"I'm going to start collecting things from the paper." She explained.

"Why?" Ron asked stupidly.

"Because then if I need it one day in the future I have a record of it." Hermione explained tartly. "And I know that _you_ kept that article about when your family went to Egypt." Ron blushed a little at that and actually remained silent.

"So what happened to Marie?" Alessandria asked Remus, who shrugged.

"We have no clue." He stated, "We had a brief meeting and Bill said the last time he saw her was early Saturday morning after their date Friday night."

"I bet he did." Ron muttered, Harry stifled his laughter at his friend's obvious discomfort talking about his eldest brother's sex life.

"So she hasn't been seen since?" Hermione asked.

"That's right." Remus replied with a nod.

"I don't know her but I hope she wasn't kidnapped by Voldemort." Charlene said worriedly.

"I never want to have the unlucky chance of meeting him." Sara muttered.

"And you won't." Harry stated determinedly, "I'm going to make sure that I'm ready to face him for the final time soon, and I'm going to beat him."

"Harry, you really couldn't be ready for that." Hermione stated, "Anyways, Dumbledore could well be the final person to face him, you never know." Harry avoided their eyes and didn't say anything, he didn't want them knowing about the prophecy, that he'd be a murderer. Sara, the White's and Dumbledore were the only people who knew about it in detail if not at all, he wasn't about to share information that didn't need to be shared.

"I have homework to do, so I had better go." He stated, getting up to leave.

"We should head back too." Hermione suggested, the others nodded.

"See you tomorrow." Sara said with a wave as she head out first, the others followed suit and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

"They are a close group." Alessandria said, shifting Jake on her lap, Remus nodded.

"It'll be a miracle if they all came out of the Final Battle alive." He stated.

"Charlene! Stop stop stop!" Sara squealed, Charlene grinned and carried on tickling her cousin in the Common Room. The others laughed at their actions.

"Why? It's funny to see you squirm Tiny." Charlene replied with a laugh, Sara was laughing and mercilessly begging Charlene to leave her alone.

Harry grinned at the two and looked down to the book he was reading, though sitting on top of the book was an interesting article from the Teen Witch magazine. It was the interview with Charlene.

**_This girl has hit the top of the modelling ladder with her worldwide success in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds; of course, we can only be talking about Charlene Therney…_**

****

**_So Charlene, you're famous, beautiful, smart and incredibly rich, what more could you possibly want for your future?_**

_Well, I've always dreamed of being a teacher. I missed out of infant, junior and high school so it's strange that I love being around kids. Though I do have a set of adorable cousins that might help._

_Okay, so a teacher is a great career choice, helping people reach their potential. What do you think you've missed out on whilst being a model?_

_I've missed out on being a normal kid. Every kid wants friends to play with and every teen girl wants those friends who you just gossip with and trust so much, I've had friends but I hardly get to see them as I'm always working._

**_That must be tough. So I guess that you're excited to be heading to Hogwarts then?_**

_Oh definitely! Anything to be treated like a normal teenager, though it'll be strange because of the model thing. But really, I can't wait to meet normal teens and be like them._

**_What will be the downsides of heading to Hogwarts?_**

_Umm… I'm not sure. I really don't like the idea of not seeing my muggle family. I have a cousin who's just starting a boarding school and every night I sit there begging Merlin that she'll start Hogwarts with me, but it's highly unlikely. I think another downside would be people thinking that I'm a bitchy and posh person because of what I do, the phrase 'never judge a book by its cover' stands out in my mind right now._

**_A question from a reader I think… Alrighty then, Sammy asks what it's like when you see yourself in the newspaper getting criticized._**

_I do? I never have time to read newspapers and there's not many mean columnists out there. But If I'm criticized, that's their problem. I'm happy with who I am and I think everybody should try being happy with themselves and not live up to the expectations of others._

**_One thing I think every girl is definitely jealous of you for, you never seem to have spots!_**

_Hehe… Yeah, well I do, trust me. They're normally hidden by makeup or spells that the makeup artists use._

**_So, we all realise that you change colours as often as you change your undies, is it fun being a colourmorphus?_**

_Yep! It's so funny freaking out my roommates on tours, once, they couldn't find me in the morning because I changed my colour to that of the wall behind me, they only found me when they realised that the wall was talking!_

**_I wish I could do that! It's a shame that colourmorphus' are as rare as metamorphungus' though, what do you think of having a special power then?_**

_I don't see it as a power; I see it as a gift. People seriously underestimate what they don't understand. That could be seen as a good thing though. If you have a gift, learn to use it instead of lose it._

**_K then, when you meet other celebs, what are they usaully like in personality?_**

_Depends who they are. I've met some really bitchy people, but the Weird Sisters are some of the coolest and nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting! Then Viktor Krum and me are really close friends also, we have friends for ages now._

**_Who's the rudest celeb you've met?_**

_Would you call Rita Skeeter a celeb? She seemed to be buzzing around me some of the summer and it was always questions like 'Whats I like to be in an affair with Viktor Krum when Hermione Grangers using love spells on him?' and stuff like that. Who said I was with Viktor and I'm intrigued about this Hermione now, I hope I get to meet her at Hogwarts; Viktor told me that she was nice._

**_Do you remember your first kiss? (She looks down and avoids my eyes right now)_**

_Yes, it wasn't long ago either and it was very, very nice. We kissed later that night too._

**_Juicy question now. Have you ever been in love?_**

_In love? No. I love people as friends and family but not like that. I am currently in like with somebody though. He's really sweet._

**_Oh? We need details now! (At this point Charlene blushes badly, like she thought she'd get away with saying something like that!)_**

_Okay, he's great for starters. His names Harry and I met him at a family party; he's my cousin Sara's babysitter and goes to the boarding school where she's headed. He's been ringing me every night since. This now goes back to the Hogwarts being a bad choice thing._

**_Alright. How would you describe your Prince Charming?_**

_Oooh, tricky one. Okay, he has to be sweet and charming (can't have a Prince without the Charming), he has to have a sense of humour and a nice smile, he also has to know what he wants for himself in the future, and he has to be able to stand the spotlight of being with somebody famous or it could never work out._

**_Okay, so what do you think about sex?_**

_It doesn't bother me much. I'm just sixteen, I want a chance to experience everything and I will experience that one-day in the far future!_

Harry laughed at certain parts of the article, especially the comment about Rita Skeeter. He was also surprised that he had been mentioned and when he had asked her about the first kiss, it had indeed been him, and that really made him feel a lot better that she liked him that much already. He definitely had a keeper…

You've been whipped.

Shut up Zodiac. Harry replied with a glare at the snake.

It's true.

I like her, but I'm not whipped.

Uh huh. Zodiac replied as he slithered away.

"I'm not!" Harry shouted after him.

**AN: Okay, HUGE overuse of the word article. The magazine interview was just a little fun; I got carried away with it!**

**For those of you who have bothered to read to whole chapter as it's so long, please review/flame/comment/whatever you want to call it. I need some feedback, what's good or bad about this story? What advice can you give me for my writing?**

**I appreciate all reviews and I do take the time to read them, I normally don't reply but as I didn't have many I did anyways this time.**

**Thanks to you people who have reviewed!**

**:p Nixi the Hyperactive Pixie**

**P.S. A Beta-Reader is somebody who checks somebody else's work for grammatical mistakes right? Well if anybody needs one I'm happy to do that for you, I'm currently sorting out my friends which got completely botched when she sent it to me, it's thirty pages long so it shows how patient I am!**


	8. Chapter 8 Wills

**AN: Heya! Here's another instalment, it's taking a little longer than usual because of all this school work that I have to get done (groan) and I have to admit that I _did_ leave it till the last minute so it's my fault entirely.**

**Hprules: Thanks for the review and about Sara, well, I didn't realise that I made her immature it's just that I don't have a female relative or friend that age (but my male cousin is [rolls eyes]) so I wasn't sure how to make her act, sorry if she's a _little_ too immature, lol, I'll try work on that, thanks for pointing it out to me AND thanks for being the first person to tell me something about my story that I could improve on, I appreciate the 'complaint', its something to improve on! Find anything else then just say! :p BTW, I'm giving something away here but Sara will be maturing much more quickly due to some... unfortunate circumstances later on in the series...**

**Torifire126: Thanx for the review! If you think of anything to say then do so! Lol.**

**Onto the awaiting chapter for you guys, I have a feeling that it'll be a bit shorter than usual though, for those of you who have actually bothered to read all odd twelve to fifteen pages of the other chapters...**

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Chapter 8 – Wills 

"Morning." Charlene said perkily as she pecked Harry on the lips. Harry stood from the sofa in the common room and pulled her into a deeper kiss.

"Ick, I don't need that sight in the morning Big Brother." Sara complained from the side, Harry laughed and grinned into the kiss before he pulled back and turned to the raven-haired girl.

"Morning Sara." He said and let go of his girlfriend slightly so that his arm rested around her waist.

"Morning, um, I was wondering if you'd help me with some work tonight?" Sara asked, Harry nodded.

"Sure, what subject?" He asked.

"Potions."

"Ah, better ask Hermione then." Harry said quickly, Sara giggled slightly and rushed over to leave the common room with her friends to head down to breakfast.

"Ask me what?" Hermione asked as she approached the couple.

"Sara needs help with her potions." Charlene told the bushy haired girl, Hermione nodded with a small smile.

"I'd gladly help her." She replied.

"I knew you would." Harry said with a short chuckle.

"Morning guys." Ron greeted with a yawn as he joined the group.

"Sleep well?" Hermione asked, the redhead nodded his reply. "Then we had better make our way down to breakfast."

They walked whilst chatting amiably to the Hall and plonked themselves down when they got there.

"Morning guys." Neville greeted, Ginny nodded at them through her mouthful of food.

"Happy birthday Dean." Hermione said to the boy who sat next to Ginny.

"Thanks." He replied.

"Having a fun day so far?" Charlene asked happily, Dean nodded.

"Yeah, I got some presents from home and you guys of course." He replied, "Thanks."

"No problem." Harry told him again, as it wasn't, the twin's had sent them the prank items when Harry had asked, and he had gotten them extremely cheap with some prototypes thrown in for good measure.

"I can't wait to make my little sisters hair pink for the day." Dean added mischievously, they laughed happily at that and Ginny leant into his side.

"Sorry I couldn't get you much." She said softly, Dean shook his head and kissed her hair lightly.

"It's fine, I like the band though." He replied and showed the group the leather band on his wrist, much like the one Ginny made Harry for his birthday. Harry grinned and showed Dean his one.

"My birthday was in July." Harry said with a laugh, "You're really good at making these Gin." He added, to which the youngest Weasley blushed.

"Thanks." She replied.

"I'm so glad it's a Friday." Ron stated, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over the friends.

"Yeah, double care of magical creatures." Harry said with a smile.

"I'm so glad Malfoy dropped that class." Hermione said wistfully, the group laughed again. Before anything else could be said screeching filled their ears.

"Posts here." Ron noted dully, Harry rolled his eyes at his friend and looked up in the sea of birds.

"There's Hedwig." He said as his snowy owl swooped down to him to drop a letter. Harry turned it over in his hands and noticed Remus' tidy scrawl.

_Dear Harry,_

_I'm fine, the Full Moon took a bit out of me so I stayed home for a few days, I'm lucky Tonks isn't allowed back at work yet so she helped me look after the little devil._

Harry laughed as he read that, knowing that the '_little devil_' would be Jake.

_I might see you tonight,_

_Remus_

"Remus says he's fine and will see us tonight." Harry told his friends, who nodded.

"I got letter's from my parents and muggle friends." Hermione said to them as she thanked the school owl.

"Mum wrote to me like usual." Ron complained, Hermione rolled her eyes and noticed Dean looking curiously at the letter in his hands, Ginny was staring too.

"That's the Gringott's seal." The redheaded girl noted, "Have you got an account there?" She asked her boyfriend curiously, he nodded.

"Not much in it though." Dean replied as he broke the seal. He scanned his eyes over the letter and started to shake slightly, Ginny noticed this and rubbed his arm reassuringly as she took the letter from him. She gasped softly.

"Dean, that's so much!" She exclaimed looking up at the dark skinned boy who had suddenly gone pale, "Dean?"

"He was a wizard." The teen in question muttered, my Mum never told me, she just said that he left us and now- now he's dead?"

Hermione, Ron, Neville, Harry and Charlene shared confused looks.

"What do you mean?" Ron dared to ask, Dean wordlessly handed the letter to the group and they each read over it.

_Dear Mr D Thomas,_

_As you have legally become of age we at Gringotts are to inform you of the account left to you by your father Mr Jason Knightlin in his will._

_The amount in this account at this moment is 60,115G 16S and 28K._

_We expect you to come with this letter to receive your account key along with your current guardians whenever you see fit._

_Yours sincerely,_

Chief Goblin Lorenook 

"Bloody hell that's a lot!" Ron exclaimed so loudly that even those at the Slytherin turned to look at him.

"Shh Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "What's wrong though Dean?" She asked carefully, instead of answering the black boy slammed his hands forcefully on the table and stood before leaving the room. Ginny plucked the letter from her brother's hands and was about to leave when Ron stopped her.

"Why's he so upset?" He asked, genuinely concerned, Ginny sighed.

"His birth father mysteriously disappeared one day when he was a baby and him and his mother hadn't heard from him since, now that Dean knows that his real father is dead... I think it's just a little hard for him." She explained, "Now I have to go make sure he's alright." With that said the girl left.

"She loves him." Charlene stated, Ron looked scandalised, "She does, it's so blatantly obvious."

"It takes longer than that to know if you love somebody." Ron stated with a not so strong voice, Hermione rolled her eyes, as did Harry.

"That's ridiculous mate, me and Charlene have been together for less time than them and look at us." Harry stated, Charlene gasped and turned to him with watery eyes.

"You love me?" She asked, Harry suddenly became self-conscious as he realised what he had said.

"Yes, I think so." He replied with a blush, Charlene smiled happily and kissed him.

"I think I love you too." She told him and they both blushed.

"Lets head back to Gryffindor Tower already." Harry suggested, Charlene nodded and the pair left hurriedly hand-in-hand.

"Those two are bloody terrible." Ron muttered to Neville, who laughed his reply.

As it turns out, Ron was right, the pair _were_ terrible and were ten minutes late to class, though Hagrid only raised an eyebrow at Harry before carrying on his lesson.

Though one person who didn't turn up at all to the double period was Dean.

"Ginny!" Harry shouted after the redhead when he spotted her in the corridor during their lunch break.

"Hey Harry." Ginny replied, turning to face her elder friend, she looked around. "Where're the others?"

"They went to charms and Hermione headed to ADADA to talk to Lessi before class." Harry explained briefly, "Anyway, I just wanted to ask if Dean was alright? He wasn't in any of our morning classes."

"Yeah, well he went to speak to Professor Dumbledore." Ginny explained briefly, "I'd love to stay and chat but I have to get going."

"See you later then."

"Yeah, see you." Ginny said with a small smile and wave as she walked off towards Gryffindor Tower.

Harry walked with Seamus back to Gryffindor Tower after their double charms class that afternoon about Dean mainly.

"Why was that letter so important to him though?" Harry asked confusedly, Seamus sighed and shook his head.

"Ginny told you earlier about his Dad right?" He asked, Harry nodded, "Well I talked to him at lunch and Dumbledore said that his father was a student here 'round the same time as your parents, was good mates with them too."

"Really?" Harry asked, Seamus nodded.

"Apparently so." He replied, "Anyway, Dean plans on asking Professor Alston about it too."

"That'll be good, Lessi's really cool, she's told me a lot about my parents along with Remus." Harry said thoughtfully.

"Remus? Remus Lupin?" Seamus inquired.

"Yeah, he's like a Godfather to me, well, a second one." Harry sad a little sadly as he thought of his deceased Godfather. "Hoobapeas." He said to the portrait of the Fat Lady, who opened to grant them access, Seamus was about to step in but was knocked back out of the entrance by Dean, who shot past them with Ginny following.

"Sorry, he's a little angry at the moment." The girl apologised before she took off after her boyfriend towards the owlery.

"No kidding." Seamus deadpanned; Harry smirked and shook his head, stepping in front of Seamus and into the Common Room. He approached the group of his friends.

"Hey." He greeted as he collapsed onto the sofa next to Charlene.

"Afternoon." Sara greeted from beside Hermione, who was checking over her work. "Hermione is just checking my original potions essay for me."

"Right." Harry muttered, Seamus fell down onto the floor next to Ron, who was attempting to hold Pig still so that he could attach a letter to the hyperactive owls leg.

"Might as well reply to Mum, Charms was a theory lesson." Ron said in explanation as to how he wrote so quickly.

"I have to write to Gran actually." Neville muttered to himself.

"Here, I have a spare quill you can use." Harry offered as he took his own quill and parchment out, "I'm gonna write to Tonks."

"Tell her I said hi." Hermione said as she looked up, "Sara, you missed out some of the ingredients for the Nail Colourant potion but apart from that it's fine." Sara looked thoughtfully at her work.

"Do you think he'll mind if I re-wrote it on paper with a ballpoint pen?" She asked in general which made the older teens laugh.

"He'd kill you." Charlene said with a grin.

"Ah, so I shouldn't?" Sara retorted, which made them all laugh again.

"Neville, at the beginning of term you said you'd met somebody." Ron suddenly said, Seamus grinned at the blushing roommate of his.

"Yeah Nevvie buddy, who is this gurly?" He asked in a teasing tone.

"That's what I'd like to know too." Harry stated, they all turned to Neville expectantly.

"Um... I... I have Herbology work that needs doing." He said quickly and shot up the boys' staircase.

"Neville!" Ron moaned.

"I reckon it's somebody from the DA." Seamus mused.

"He seems pretty close to Susan Bones." Hermione observed.

"They're just potions partners." Harry said, recalling the last few weeks when Neville had partnered with the confident Susan.

"Katie Bell?" Ron suggested, and then shook his own suggestion off.

"How about-"

Dean coming back into the room with Ginny cut off Seamus' suggestion and he sat down heavily on an armchair by the fire. Ginny set herself down in his lap and talked to him, but the boy didn't seem to be responding.

"Do you think they're having relationship problems?" Charlene asked curiously.

"No, he was saying last night how great it was going." Harry told her.

"It all started when he got that Gringott's letter." Hermione stated.

"Maybe he just needs time to adjust to finding out his father was a wizard? And that he's dead so he'll never have the chance to meet him." Harry suggested, "It was hard when I came into this world finding out that my parents were magical but I had a whole new world to distract me, he's found out that somebody he's grown up to believe didn't love him is dead."

"How did you know he's grown up to believe that?" Hermione asked, Harry shrugged.

"Guessed, but from what I gather he thought his father left him and his mother." He told her as the bushy haired girl looked at her watch.

"Oh no! Sorry, I'm late for a study group in the library, have to go." She said then got up to leave.

"Want me to go with you?" Ron asked without thinking, Hermione turned, slightly shocked at the offer, and then smiled.

"Sure, I'd like that Ron." She replied and Ron got up form his position on the floor and headed off.

"They are going to kiss." Seamus muttered.

"Finally." Harry replied with a roll of his eyes. "And that's a galleon for me from each of you guys."

The pair walked in a comfortable silence for a moment, Hermione ignored the tingles she felt up her arm as Ron's hand brushed hers.

"So..."

"So." Hermione replied.

"What's this study group for?" He asked.

"Just a general study group." Hermione replied.

"Oh."

"Why did you offer to walk me there?" Hermione asked, Ron stopped and noticed that they were in a frequently used corridor, people walking both ways, including teachers. He swallowed and took her hand in his, ignoring the warm feeling that travelled up his arm and through his body at the touch. He pulled her into the DADA classroom and sat her down on a desk.

"I... Um Hermione."

"Yes?" Hermione asked, completely oblivious to what he was trying to say.

"I..." Ron faltered again and looked into her eyes, which were questioning and confused. He then did something completely unexpected to them both; he leant forward and kissed her soft red lips gently.

To say Hermione was shocked was an understatement and she did the only thing she could do; close her eyes and enjoy her first kiss. She was shocked as she felt his tongue run across her bottom lip but parted her lips to let him slip his tongue into her mouth. She unconsciously groaned into the kiss and let him explore her mouth before she fought against him, their tongues dancing.

"He hem." Ron flew backwards with wide eyes and the pair turned to face Alessandria. The DADA professor had a huge grin on her face, though the man behind was scowling, Snape.

"What do you think you are doing?" Snape hissed, Ron stuttered a little.

"I... We..."

"Don't worry Ron." Alessandria said with a grin, she looked between the two, "So are you a couple." They both blushed and avoided her eyes. "Well, I take that as a yes so I win the bet." She stated, Hermione looked up sharply, her face still as red as a beetroot though.

"Bet?" She asked.

"Yeah, I guessed fifteenth of October, Tonks said the seventeenth, um, Remus said the twelfth, Bill said in November sometime-"

"My brother bet on me and Hermione getting together!" Ron exclaimed accusingly, Alessandria laughed.

"They all did, so did your parents." She stated, "And I'm sure that your friends all did too. Anyway, I think you should be heading off to the library, where you're meant to be?"

"Oh no! I'm late!" Hemrione exclaimed, she jumped off of the desk and went out, Ron followed.

"I'm glad their finally together, took a while mind you." Alessandria said to Snape, who rolled his eyes.

"You and romances." He muttered to himself.

Later that evening, Hermione and Ron came back hand-in-hand, people from around the room came over and handed Harry money with annoyed looks or they laughed at the looks Ron and Hermione gave Harry.

"You actually _betted_ on us!" Hermione exclaimed, Harry shrugged.

"Well, it was an entertaining way to get money." He said with a chuckle, wincing when Hermione hit him around the head. "_Sorry_." He said sarcastically, glaring at Hermione. Ron sat down on the last remaining seat on the sofas and pulled Hermione down onto his lap when she looked for somewhere to sit, causing them both to blush and the others to laugh at their red faces.

"So Dean, you look happier." Hermione commented to the boy who was sitting on the floor in front of Ginny, who was braiding small parts of the boys sheer black hair in boredom.

"Yeah, I am I suppose." Dean said with a sigh, "I just want to know more about my father, I thought that he'd left me until this morning."

"I heard that he was friends with Remus and my parents." Harry stated, Dean nodded.

"According to Dumbledore. He said he knows someone who could tell me a bit about him, apart from Professor Alston of course." Dean told him, "D'you know who?"

"Probably Remus, he comes to the school most nights to see Lessi, so we see him then." Harry explained.

"Will he be here tonight?" Dean asked, Harry shrugged.

"It was Full Moon a few nights ago and he said it took a lot out of him." He explained and then looked up at the chiming clock of the Common Room. "I had better get ready for Quidditch practice." He stated, then stood up and headed up to the dorms with the rest of the boys. The four boys opened their dorm room door and looked at each other schemeingly as they saw Neville sitting on his bed reading. The pudgy boy in question looked up with every right to worry.

"Neville mate." Seamus said, approaching his friends bed, he sat down next to Neville and put an arm over the suspicious boys shoulders, the other three approached also.

"Now, it has been five years now," Dean said,

"And you've never had anybody of romantic interest before," Harry continued,

"So we think you need to tell us who this poor girl is, don't you think guys?" Ron finished and the other boys nodded at Ron before looking to Neville for answers.

"Look, I don't want to tell you!" Neville exclaimed, "You'll make fun of me." He added quietly, making the others look confused.

"Neville, we wouldn't, seriously, it's not like it could be anybody like... Loony Lovegood or..." Ron trailed off at the colour Neville's face took, a red darker than any other.

"Luna!" Harry exclaimed, "You like Luna Lovegood!"

"Wow, that's... unexpected." Ron stated.

"She's really nice." Neville stated confidently, despite his blush, "And she's different from all the other girls-"

"Don't we know." Ron muttered, Harry elbowed him in the ribs and motioned at Neville.

"She doesn't take the mick out of me because I'm not good at stuff and she's actually very smart." Neville finished.

"Well we don't doubt that." Harry said to Neville to cheer him up, "Anyways, we have Quidditch practice to get ready for."

The boys came back from Quidditch practice late and then headed to Alessandria's quarters, also taking Dean and Ginny with them, though Ginny had spent some of her evenings with the normal visitors too so she already knew Alessandria as a friend.

They knocked on the door as usual and waited for Alessandria to open it. Instead though, a woman with long black wavy hair and a heart shaped face opened it instead.

"Tonks!" Harry exclaimed and hugged her.

"Wotcher Harry!" She replied around a wince, "Be careful there, I've only been out of the hospital a few days, and my ribs didn't really fix properly. Thanks for the letter by the way." She moved back into the room and Harry was shocked to see Remus there also, he smiled tiredly at them all.

"Remus, are you alright?" Harry asked concernedly.

"I'm fine." Remus replied.

"You sure?" Harry asked, Remus smiled and shook his head with a laugh.

"I'm great Harry." He stated, "Now come take a seat already." The group sat on the floor and in the remaining chairs around the room, the girls sat near Jake to play with him as usual and the tiny boy gave them hugs. Jake reached out to Harry who picked him up.

"Hey Jake, how's your week been then?" Harry asked in a childish voice, Jake pointed at Dean instead with babyish curiosity.

"Remus, I'm sure you remember Dean from your time teaching here, or are you forgetting things already?" Alessandria said cheekily, Remus rolled his eyes at her with a chuckle.

"Yes I remember Dean, how are you?" He asked Dean.

"I'm okay." Dean replied a little shyly, he wasn't used to treating professors as friends.

"That's good." Remus said as he studied the boy, "I don't know why I never saw it before."

"Saw what Sir?" Dean asked, Remus waved off the sir comment.

"Just call me Remus. I don't see why I never saw the resemblance you have to your father." Remus explained, "Though I suppose it's not as obvious as the Harry and James one it's still there."

"Really?" Dean asked, Remus nodded.

"Your eyes and face, same structure." Remus stated.

"His nose isn't as flat as Jason's though." Alessandria said with a laugh.

"Oh leave the poor boy alone." Tonks complained, she reached forward and held her hand out, "Tonks, nice to meet you Dean, Ginny's told me a lot about you." She said with a cheeky wink at Ginny, who blushed bright red from Dean's lap.

"Hi." Dean replied as he shook the woman's hand and looked inquiringly at his girlfriend.

"Y'know Tonks, you look like you could be related to Harry and Sara when you have your hair like that." Hermione said thoughtfully, Tonks looked at the two young raven-haired kids, Sara had her hair down and like Tonks' hair it was quite long and wavy, though it didn't reach her waist like Tonks' hair did, it only went halfway down her back and was incredibly messy like usual, which was another thing that made Harry and her look alike.

"Harry and Sara aren't related though." Tonks said in confusion.

"No but he's my Honorary Big Brother." Sara explained, Tonks perked up.

"Mind if I join the little family then?" She asked.

"Nope." Harry stated.

"Always wanted a big sister." Sara continued, they laughed happily at that.

"Um... What other stuff can you tell me about my Dad?" Dean asked after a moments silence, Ginny's grip around his waist tightened and he unconsciously pulled her closer to him.

"Well, he was a nice guy." Alessandria stated, "He was a few years above us in Gryffindor I think." She turned to Remus who nodded.

"Four years above us." He affirmed, "If it weren't for him the name Marauder wouldn't have been given to us." He added with a wistful smile.

"Oh no, not that again." Alessandria said with a laugh.

"What?" Harry asked with a grin, he loved hearing stories about his parents.

"Well, it was our third year, and Jason was Head Boy-"

"Would've made a better one if you didn't disrupt him." Alessandria cut in.

"Us disrupt him? More like the other way round!" Remus exclaimed to which Alessandria giggled and shook her head, "Anyways, we were just heading out for a late night prank and were under James' invisibility cloak-"

"I can't believe you all still fit under that in third year." Alessandria interrupted again.

"We hardly did, by fourth year Peter had to go in rat form." Remus told her, "Anyway, we were sneaking out-"

"Or trying to." Alessandria said, Remus looked down at her (she was leaning against him).

"Do you want to tell this?" He asked, Alessandria shrugged with a smile and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Go on." She said, the others laughed at Remus' face.

"So as I was saying, we were _attempting_ to sneak out when Sirius tripped over Peter right after we got out of the portrait hole, unfortunately for us, Jason was coming round the corner and fell over Sirius and Peter, the invisibility cloak got stuck on his foot and dragged off of James' head, to say he was shocked was an understatement. He gave us all detentions and confiscated the cloak and map for a week. He also took the colourant potions we were going to use." Remus stated, then Alessandria laughed, interrupting him again, "The next morning we woke up like usual and took our showers," By now Alessandria had to cover her mouth to stop her giggles, "And went down to the hall for breakfast."

"The four boys all had bright red skin and golden hair." Alessandria stated with another giggle, the others started laughing, "And to make it worse, Jason had charmed them so that their clothes would turn invisible!"

"No!" Harry exclaimed with wide eyes before he started laughing again.

"Yes, but luckily he was nice enough to leave our underwear out of the spell." Remus explained.

"But he did charm your boxers to have little hearts on didn't he Rem?" Alessandria giggled, "I still have the photos of you and your golden boxers with burgundy hearts."

"Photos?" Hermione asked, Alessandria nodded and stood to get them, but Remus grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back onto the settee.

"Oh no you don't." He said as a blush rose to his cheeks, "Maybe another time in the _far_ far future."

"Don't worry, I'll smuggle them to you." Alessandria mock whispered to them. "But they got the name Marauder's then when Jason announced to the whole school that it was his leaving present."

"Actually we got the name before hand I think, that's just when it was made known as that." Remus said thoughtfully, "He had been calling us Marauder's since we started the school."

"Well you were." Alessandria stated, Remus nodded thoughtfully.

"Didn't you date him?" He asked her, Alessandria looked shocked.

"You remember that?" She asked, Remus nodded. "I hardly did."

"You dated my Dad?" Dean asked.

"I dated Harry's Dad too, and Sirius, Peter I didn't, I didn't date guys that scum." Alessandria said with a scowl.

"She was a bit of a get around." Remus put in, Alessandria hit him.

"Was not." She said childishly, "I went out with them for three weeks at the most, the only one I dated more than that was you and that was from our fourth year Yule Ball till sometime after Lily and James died." Alessandria said seriously, looking up at him though he was avoiding her eyes. Alessandria sighed and looked down at Jake, she slowly got off of the settee and picked her son up. "I think it's time for bed Jakey." She said to the little boy who shook his head.

"No." He said, Alessandria laughed.

"Yes." She replied.

"I not go to bed!" Jake exclaimed, Alessandria laughed at his little pout.

"Remus, help me here." She asked, turning to Remus who chuckled and stood up. He took Jake from Alessandria and tickled him.

"How about we go back and see Molly at home yeah?" He asked, Jake nodded. "See you all tomorrow then."

"Bye Remus, Bye Jakey." Alessandria said and kissed Jake on the forehead.

"Night night Mummy." Jake said with a cute wave as Remus put the floo powder into the fireplace.

"Twelve Grimmauld Place!" He exclaimed and they were soon gone. The teens and Tonks stayed until it was way past Sara's curfew and nearing their own before they all left Alessandria to her marking the second years work.

"That was interesting." Dean said as he collapsed into a settee in the Common Room.

"Your welcome to go again." Harry offered, Dean nodded.

"I'd like that." He said with a grin and kissed Ginny happily, "Thanks for letting me come with tonight."

"No problem."

**AN: Sorry it's not as long as usual! Don't shoot me! The Air Show is tomorrow so I won't be writing much else tomorrow as I'm babysitting too (groan). It might take longer than usual to update in the coming weeks as I have so much coursework that should've been done and wasn't and I go back to school on the first of September! Eek! Sorry guys! Please Review too!**


	9. Chapter 9 Halloween and Order Meetings

**AN: Thanks for the reviews! I'm aiming to get at least a hundred reviews by the end of this story so please, constructive criticism and reviews are welcomed greatly!**

**I am concluding that those readers who have stayed with me this long like long reads, as this has twenty-three planned chapters and as I'm writing around 6000 words per chapter I expect this to reach at least the 110000 mark.**

**Review responses:**

**Maclir: Wow, thanks! I like all sorts of reviews but yours just boosted my writers-ego! Thank you!**

**Elizabeth Mahoney: Loosing sleep? Cool, I didn't know that I could write that good! Lol. I know what you mean though; I persistently check some of my favourites!**

**Madskillzpro: I don't know what to make of your review! But I will continue writing anywayz!**

**Lynn-50670: I like Harry/OC's too, thanx for the review!**

**Lensman: In order to your review. Thanx, I will keep the story, I'm glad you enjoy them and if you had seen some of the other stuff I wanted to make out of my OC's then they wouldn't be very believable! To be completely honest with you I wrote my first story with over forty OC's (though they WERE the Weasley family mainly!) and that made it so stupid. I thought I had too many OC's but thanx!**

**(BTW, as the thing I planned as Parseltounge speech didn't work out, I'm changing it to this: "&Parseltounge speaking&" and also, I don't really do the whole sssss thing, it bugs me too much to write because of this damn computers spell-checker.)**

**Go ahead and read now!**

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Chapter 9 – Halloween and Order Meetings 

Two knocks were sharply pronounced on the door of the sixth year boy's dormitories.

"Wait a moment!" Dean shouted at the door, making sure his towel was firmly fixated at his waist.

"Come in." Neville called out as he looked up from his book and at the door.

"All decent?" Came a teasing voice.

"Ginny!" Dean exclaimed, nearly dropping his towel. Ginny blushed on seeing her boyfriend's undressed state as the other two girls laughed. Hermione and Charlene had followed Ginny into the dorm.

"Can't you keep your voice down Dean? It's the weekend!" Ron complained from his bed, Hermione opened his curtains and sat on his bed, opening his eyes at the extra weight Ron yelped and jumped back in shock.

"Mione!" He exclaimed, "Why are you in here?" He asked as his blush came to his embarrassed face at being caught in just the boxers he slept in.

"They obviously want something." Harry stated, coming in from the bathroom in just his towel, Charlene struggled with her 'gift' to stop the colour rising in her currently light brown face.

"We wanted to head down to Hogsmeade today." The colourmorphus stated, looking anywhere but at Harry's wet body. The Boy-Who-Lived smirked and walked up to her, her wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her deeply, to which she responded eagerly.

"Get a room." Seamus said, throwing a pillow at the pair, the rest in the room laughed.

"Well mind me a moment whilst I get changed." Dean said, closing the curtains around his bed to change behind them, Harry copied the idea and looked at Ron, the only other boy in the dormitory not already at least half-dressed; though Ron didn't seem to mind as he held Hermione to him and whispered into the blushing young woman's ear, telling her things that made her giggle and nod. Not wanting to know, Harry pulled the curtains around his own bed and changed quickly.

An hour later found Harry, Charlene, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Dean, Seamus, Neville and Luna making their way down the path to Hogsmeade. Seamus looked a little left out as he was the only guy not with a girlfriend but he shrugged it off and just joined in the fun in the end.

"So what's everybody doing today?" Hermione asked.

"Me and Charlene are going to go get some lunch." Harry stated as he slipped his arm around Charlene's slim waist.

"We are?" She asked, Harry nodded.

"Yep." He replied.

"See, I told you I got the best one." Charlene said to Hermione and Ginny, poking her tongue out.

"Me and Dean are going for lunch too." Ginny stated indignantly.

"Yes but I was surprised." Charlene replied pompously, Hermione laughed at the two girls who were playfully bickering.

"It doesn't really matter." She cut in, "Just keep it as a nice lunch and not a competition."

"Ah well, I suppose that means that I have to eat that picnic myself then." Ron said with a mock sigh.

"Picnic?" Hermione asked with wide-eyes, Ron nodded and kissed her cheek softly.

"Yep, picnic." He replied, Hermione turned back to the girls.

"_I_ have the best one." She stated, causing everyone to laugh happily.

"We had better head off, lets meet up after lunch sometime." Harry suggested

"How about the Three Broomsticks at three?" Ginny asked, the others all nodded and went their separate ways.

"Whoa! Neville, you're not leaving me too are you mate?" Seamus asked, Neville nodded.

"Yep, me and Luna are going to Madam Puddifoot's, sorry." He told the Irish boy, not really sounding sorry at all before he left.

"Great, now what do I do?" Seamus asked himself.

"Harry, take your hand down already." Charlene said with a small giggle as he held her firmly around the waist with one hand and covered her eyes with the other.

"Not yet." Harry whispered in her ear, watching with delight at the way she shivered at the feeling of his breath tickling her neck.

Harry led Charlene to a stop and slowly took his hand from her eyes; he got the response he wanted so badly when she gasped softly. He had taken her to a new restaurant on the edge of town and had asked for a private room (to keep away the press as the two were both famous) and for a single red rose to be placed on the small table.

Harry led Charlene to her seat and pulled out the chair for her. After he had pushed her chair back in her went to the other side of the table to sit down himself.

"Do you like it?" Harry asked with anxiety.

"I love it Harry, this is too much." Charlene said in wonderment, Harry shook his head.

"No it's not." He replied self-consciously. "I also wanted to tell you something." Charlene looked intrigued and Harry looked her in the eye.

"I don't think I love you anymore." He stated, Charlene's intrigued face turned to one of confusion and anger.

"What?" She asked, "You invited me on this perfect date to tell me something like _that_!" She exclaimed and made to stand up but Harry placed his hand over hers.

"I don't think I love you anymore because I _know_ that I love you." He stated, Charlene's features softened and tears glistened in her eyes. Harry took her silence badly, "I know that it's only been two months and everything but I really love you and-" Charlene reached across the table and put a finger on his lips.

"I love you too." She said softly, Harry smiled and met her at the middle of the table in a heartfelt kiss that seemed so much different than the other kisses they'd shared, it was amazing.

They broke out of the kiss with smiles on their faces and settled for playing footsie under the table for the rest of their meal.

The minute Harry and Charlene stepped out of the restaurant a small handful of reporters and photographers hounded them. Harry quickly tried to shield him and Charlene from their view and walk off but they were followed.

"Mr Potter, how does it feel to be a victim of this love circle?"

"Miss Therney, did you know-"

"Mr Potter can I ask you a question-"

Harry looked at Charlene discreetly and saw her turn to him.

"How about we give them something to talk about?" Charlene asked quietly so that the reporters wouldn't hear them as they the couple attempted to walk off and back into the main town.

"Well what were you thinking?" Harry asked with an impish grin, he noticed the flashes of cameras behind them get steadily closer. Charlene stopped and stopped Harry as he was holding onto her hand, Harry turned to ask what she was doing when she wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him. After getting over the initial shock Harry kissed her back and snaked his arms around her waist, he even went as far as to sneak one underneath her cloak and onto her backside.

Charlene pulled back with a slick sound and mischievous grin.

"Now we run." She said with a giggle and grabbed his hand. They ran away quickly from the reporters all the way back to the town, laughing the whole way.

"They'll catch up with us you know!" Harry said whilst gasping for breath.

"Let them, I wouldn't mind doing that again." Charlene stated, Harry grinned and pulled her into another deep kiss into which he smiled.

"This is the middle of town Harry! Get a freaking room!" Seamus called as he walked over with armfuls of bags.

"Yeah yeah." Harry muttered and waved a hand to dismiss it. "What have you been doing then?"

"I met up with some of the Ravenclaw's but now they've only gone and lost themselves in the book shop." Seamus complained, Charlene giggled. "So what did you two do?"

"We went to that new restaurant on the edge of town and-" Harry broke off with a groan.

"What?" Seamus asked, Harry pointed behind the other teen and indicated the reporters who were looking for him and Charlene. "Oh." Seamus muttered in reply.

"Yeah, they aren't going to leave us alone are they?" Charlene asked with a sigh.

"Nope." Harry said as the reporters spotted them and made their way over.

"Do we run again?" Charlene asked, Harry shook his head.

"They'll keep coming to Hogsmeade weekends for interviews then, can't avoid them forever." Harry stated.

"Mr Potter!" One of the reporters exclaimed and Harry groaned at who it was.

"I hate her." Charlene muttered, Harry grinned at her.

"Don't worry, we can easily blackmail her." Harry told her as the group came right up to them.

"How?" Charlene whispered into his ear as the reporters quickly crowded them.

"I'll tell you later." Harry whispered to her and then started listening to the reporters, Charlene glared up at him briefly before she leant into his side to try hide her face, Seamus was shocked as he stood behind the crowd and Harry looked over to the Irish teen desperately, he seemed to get the message and walked off hurriedly to find somebody.

"Mr Potter, are you aware that you're in the middle of a famous love circle?" One male reporter asked, Harry laughed sarcastically.

"You mean the one with Mione and Viktor Krum? Well I know that's what this is according to the Daily Prophet right? I don't really read that rubbish anymore." Harry said dismissively, Charlene looked shocked at his behaviour as the reporters scribbled it down. "Anyway, Hermione's not going out with Viktor, she's with Ron." He added and looked around for a teacher or someone.

"Ronald Weasley?" One reporter asked, Harry nodded quickly, his attention drawn from searching.

"How long have you and Mr Potter been together Miss Therney?" One reporter asked.

"Just over two months." Charlene replied politely.

"So you two met in the holidays?" A tall black woman asked from behind them, Harry turned to the black woman and Charlene answered the question with a nod. "Where did you meet then?"

"At a party." Harry replied.

"A party? A celebrity party?" A short reporter next to the tall woman asked.

"No, a family party." Charlene replied.

"So this is incest!" One reporter exclaimed, Harry pulled a face.

"No!" He shouted, "I babysat her cousins a few times over the summer and their parents invited me to a party!"

"What's going on here?" A woman asked from the side and behind the reporters, Alessandria stood with Seamus, Ron and Hermione and also McGonnagal, Snape, Hagrid and Remus, who had Jake. Harry mouthed a thanks to Seamus who nodded with a smirk.

"Leave!" McGonnagal exclaimed, the reporters scattered and Charlene sighed with relief.

"Argh! How annoying is that?" She asked and leaned into her boyfriend's side, Harry laughed.

"I think you two are going to be mentioned as well." He said to his two best friends, Hermione scowled and folded her arms over her chest.

"Why?" She asked.

"Well the first thing they asked about was the 'Love Circle'." Charlene sated, Hermione groaned.

"Great." The bushy haired young woman replied.

"Thanks." Harry said to the professors (And ex-professor).

"It was no problem Mr Potter." McGonnagal said with a smile.

"Are we still meeting with Ginny at the Three Broomsticks?" Harry asked his three friends.

"Yep." Ron stated.

"Good, now I think I'm going to head for Honeydukes, I promised Sara I'd get her some sugar quills for classes." Charlene stated.

"She'll get caught." Ron, Hermione, Harry and Seamus said simultaneously as they started to walk off at a slow pace.

"I told her that!" Charlene said with a laugh, she hit Harry's hand from where it was creeping further down her back and he pouted at her.

"They're good kids." McGonnagal stated.

"Let's just hope that other prophecy isn't about them." Remus said with a sigh as they watched Harry pick Charlene up and twirl her around. Hermione took some of Seamus' small sweets and threw them at the couple, Harry broke out of the kiss and threw a handful of the sweets back at Hermione, and this resulted in a small sweet fight between the five teens.

The professors headed back for the Three Broomsticks and left the teens to themselves having fun whilst they could.

The rest of the trip went smoothly and the large group of Gryffindor's made their way back up to the school an hour before the Halloween Feast was due to start.

They walked towards the lake and settled down under a willow tree in the darkened grounds.

"Hey, I've never realised these before." Ginny said suddenly, she twisted in Dean's arms and ran her finger down some engravings that rested in a small crevice made by the deformed trunk of the tree.

"What?" Hermione asked as she leant into Ron's side, her head resting on the redhead's shoulder.

"These engravings." Ginny stated, "J.H.P heart's L.R.E." She read out then looked at the next one along, "R.J.L heart's A.A." She laughed as she read the next one, "Here's another one, 'The Marauders were here 1979'." She stated with a grin and then ran her fingers over the carvings.

"It actually says that?" Harry asked in shock and shuffled around to get a closer look. Ginny was still running her fingers over the numerous carvings in the crevice when her fingers came across a knot. The knot glowed slightly and Ginny quickly pulled her hand away, her elbow whacking straight into Dean's ribs.

"Ow!" Dean exclaimed, rubbing the spot. Ginny didn't even bother saying sorry as she shared a look with Harry.

"You saw that too?" She asked, Harry nodded slightly and the others crowded round.

"Saw what?" Hermione asked.

"The knot in the tree glowed." Harry stated.

"&You're smart.&" Zodiac hissed sarcastically from Harry's wrist, the teen rolled his eyes along with Ginny.

"Shut up Zodiac." The two said simultaneously.

"&I was just expressing my views.&" The snake stated, "&And I thought you might like to know that there's a hollow part in that tree underneath that knot and there's something in there.&"

"&Really?&" Harry asked, accidentally replying in the language that his friends cringed at, though he didn't realise as it sounded completely normal to him.

"&No, I was just saying that.&" Harry swore that Zodiac rolled his eyes at him and scowled.

"I wonder how we're meant to get the box then." Ginny said thoughtfully, confusing the others.

"Box? What box?" Hermione asked.

"The box that's in the hollow bit of the tree." Ginny explained with a wave of her hand.

"Hollow of the tree?" Dean asked, "It looks pretty firm to me."

"&Thick humans.&" Zodiac complained, "&It has enchantments around the hollow bit, many of them.&"

"Zodiac said that there's enchantments all over the hollow bit." Harry stated as he studied the area around the knot.

"It could be something to do with the Marauders." Hermione suggested.

"And it's just like them to do something like that." Ron added for her.

"Should we ask Remus?" Harry asked.

"Might as well." Ron said with a shrug.

"Come on, the Feast will be starting soon enough." Dean said and they all got up to make their way to the Hall. Harry shot a look at the old Willow Tree as they walked off; there was something about it and he was determined to work it out.

"I have an idea." Ron stated as they entered the entrance hall, he led them the opposite way to the Great Hall.

"Where are you taking us Ron?" Hermione asked confusedly as he led them further down.

"Yeah mate, where are we going?" Dean asked, Ron just shook his head and took out a few bottles from his pocket.

"I brought these today." He stated.

"And?" Harry prompted.

"They're hair colourant potions." Ron finished with a wicked grin.

"And?" Charlene said over-exaggeratedly.

"Has Ginny taken you to the kitchens yet Dean?" Ron asked falsely curious. Hermione was the first to realise what he was going to do.

"No Ron! You can't!" She exclaimed.

"Why not?" He asked, "They are perfectly harmless!"

"Yeah Hermione, it'll be interesting." Ginny stated.

"Please?" Harry asked with puppy-dog eyes, Hermione sighed when the six others joined in.

"Alright then." She said resignedly and they hurried towards the kitchens.

Ron tickled the pear excitedly and it transformed into a handle. Charlene jumped back slightly in shock but went forward when Harry did.

"Mr Harry Potter Sir!" A squeaky voice exclaimed, a small creature bulleted it's way to Harry and dove into the teen's stomach.

"Oof." Harry muttered as the air was knocked out of him. "Hi Dobby." He wheezed.

"Mr Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is happy you are here Sir!" Dobby said excitedly.

"Dobby." Ron said, getting straight to business, "I have some potions here that I need you to put into each of the juice jugs for me."

"Why would Dobby need to do that Ron Wheezy?" Dobby asked curiously.

"Because it's medicine." Ginny said quickly, "The school are all ill and you need o give them the cure."

"Oh no!" Dobby said with wide-eyes. "Dobby will do all he can Miss Wheezy!" He said, taking the vials from Ron. The group made to leave.

"Oh and Dobby," Harry aid, turning back around, "Can you make sure that none of the houseelves tell anybody we gave you those? We can't risk everybody hurting us because we found the cure before them, we want Dumbledore to take credit for it."

"Dobby promises his best Mr Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby exclaimed and started ordering the houseelves around.

"Oh my God! How did you lie like that?" Charlene asked with a laugh as they closed the door to the kitchen. Ginny shrugged.

"You learn when you're the youngest of six." She stated.

"And I lived with the Dursley's." Harry stated.

"We had better hurry up there now or they'll know it was us!" Hermione exclaimed and they took off at a run to the Great Hall.

After sitting down and starting the feast, the group looked around eagerly, waiting for the start of their prank.

"Why isn't anything happening?" Ginny asked Ron in whispers.

"Because it takes a little time." Ron whispered back. They carried on eating and soon shrieks erupted from some girls at the Slytherin table. Their hair was bright yellow. Ore shrieks followed and hair of neon colours filled the hall, pink, blue, green and yellow. The only person who had gotten away with it was Charlene miraculously enough.

Snape (now with neon yellow hair) glared down at the girl. He got up and strode to the Gryffindor table.

"YOU!" He shouted, the whole hall turned around to see Snape pointing his finger at Charlene and the teen was looking innocent.

"What about me?" She asked curiously, Harry was amazed at how she pulled it off.

"You done this!" Snape shouted, McGonnagal, Alessandria and Dumbledore came down from the Head table also (they had green, pink and blue hair respectively).

"Now Severus you can't jump to conclusions." Dumbledore stated calmly. "Miss Therney did you do this?" He asked.

"No sir." Charlene replied confidently, Harry could've sworn he saw a flicker of a smile from both McGonnagal and Dumbledore, Alessandria was trying to hold in her laughter but was unsuccessful, letting giggles escape.

"She must have! She's the only one unaffected!" Snape shouted.

"Sir, I'm colourmorphus." Charlene stated. "Colour potions and spells don't affect me, you should know that."

"She's right y'know Sev." Alessandria said with another giggle.

"Her and Potter done this." Snape sneered.

"But you have no evidence Sevvy." Alessandria said almost tauntingly, her brother turned and set his most terrifying glare at her. "That's never worked on me and you know it." Alessandria stated and patted his hair, "Just go make the counter potion or wait till it wears off bro." Snape glared witheringly at Charlene once more before storming out of the room.

The group went to the Common Room laughing that night and stayed up talking in the Common Room until quite late.

"I'm hungry." Ron complained around a yawn.

"You're always hungry." Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes. Harry and Charlene were resting on the single seater opposite the two sprawled on top of the settee. They were the last ones left in the living room at nearly twelve.

"How about we go on a midnight trip?" Harry suggested, an excited glint came to his girlfriend's eyes.

"Can we?" She asked exuberantly, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"do you think that the house elves will want us back there after what we done?" She asked incredulously.

"It's late, they probably won't be in there." Ron stated.

"Well-"

"Great, me and Harry will go get the cloak." Ron said and jumped up, knocking his girlfriend of two weeks to the floor.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed quietly as the two boys made their way up the staircase. "I did _not_ say we were gonna go." She muttered to herself and Charlene just grinned knowingly.

"Ouch! Ron that's my foot!" Charlene said in pain, they had cramped under the invisibility cloak just barely and it still showed around their ankles.

Harry had the Marauders Map in front of him and was using it to guide the way.

"Hey, there are Order members in the Great Hall." Harry whispered as he used his wand as a light over the map again.

"Really?" Hermione asked and stopped suddenly, causing them to tumble to the floor.

"Yes." Harry muttered with a glare at the prefect as they righted themselves again.

"Lets go then." Ron said. The group quad made their way to the Hall and were about to go in when Hermione stopped them.

"Moody can see through cloaks!" She exclaimed, "And so can Dumbledore!"

"Well Moody's not there." Harry stated. "Let's just open the door a little bit."

They pushed the door open slightly so that the voices floated out into the corridor. Harry stuffed the map in his pocket.

"...and is currently at HQ." They heard Dumbledore say.

"I bet Bill's happy then." They heard Alessandria state with relief.

"Yes he is. I spoke with him earlier today and he said that he' doing all he can to make her feel normal again but the poor girl went through a lot." Molly's voice came and Ron looked shocked. _"Mum!"_ He mouthed in alarm, they prompted him to be quiet with 'Shh!'.

"Does Marie remember much?" Kingsley asked as he looked around for an answer.

"Some of it." Tonks stated, "She's in shock though, being kidnapped by him is a trauma." She stated as she leaned into Charlie even more, his grip visibly got tighter on her.

"Yes well, I also wanted to discuss with you the prophecies-" Dumbledore cut off as he thought he heard something.

"What is it Albus?" Arthur asked.

"I thought I heard something." He stated quietly and silently made his way over to the doors, "Like I was saying I would like to discuss the-" He pulled the door open at that point and watched as he saw four teens fall to the floor in front of him. Harry looked up sheepishly at him.

"Evening Professor." He said with a weak grin, Dumbledore gazed disapprovingly at the four and pulled the silvery cloak from them in one swift motion. Molly gasped along with Tonks and the others looked shocked.

"Ronald William Weasley what do you think you are up to?!" Molly shouted.

"William?" Harry asked, momentarily forgetting the situation they were in.

"Harry James Potter!" Molly continued angrily, "Hermione Jane Granger And Charlene Therney WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" She shouted.

"Molly stay calm." Arthur chided and placed a hand on her arm.

"At least she doesn't know my middle name." Charlene muttered.

"What is it?" Harry asked out of the side of his mouth as Molly ranted at them.

"Leanne." Charlene replied with a snort of disgust.

"You four go to your common rooms, you each have a detention and ten points from Gryffindor for being out after hours." Dumbledore stated as Molly paused for breath. The four nodded and made themselves scarce.

"I wonder how much they heard?" Kingsley muttered to himself.

"I wonder what prophecies he meant."

**AN: Soz, it's shorter than usual, I have just had to rush things recently due to school work! NO!!! I skived because of a special meeting today but I can't tomorrow! NO!!!**

**Can anybody think of ways to annoy Slytherins? Witty lines or jokes? I'm going to need all the ideas I can get, preferably anything that can get it to _a lot _of witty remarks for something that will be later in this story or maybe in the sequel. Just make sure you leave a name if you're anonymously reviewing because I will need to give credit to you!**


	10. Chapter 10 Love can be Tough

**AN: Where you see SECTION BREAK, well it's a little obvious right? If not, well the little asterisks didn't work in the last chapter, which has confused everybody so I'm changing how I do things.**

**In case you've forgotten, parseltongue speech is written like "&This.&" Okie?**

**I'm really upset that only one person reviewed the last chapter (thanks BTW) but I'm not one of those writers that puts 'If you dont review you dont get any more', because that's just stupid, I write for fun not because I have to. Writing is one thing I'm not going to stop doing and I just like a little guidance and help when you think I'm wrong also some reassurance that you like what you read? I know that this is a long story but it will be good in the long run.**

**I'm only writing this chapter now because of my best friend because she asked me earlier today to copy a story onto floppy disk for her so she can read my writing, which I thank her for because I know she can't stand Harry Potter! Thanx Lio, you're the best friend a person could have!**

**BTW, I am experiencing a little block on this story (hence why it took so long to write) and am thinking of postponing it for a while as my other ideas are developing greatly, I'll sill be updating but no as regularly which is also due to (the retched) schoolwork/homework/coursework. I still have about five pieces of coursework that was due in last term....**

**Chapter 10 – Love can be Tough**

"_The pair dismissed any 'Love Circle'... Potter verbally attacked the Daily Prophet calling it "Rubbish"._ Well it is." Hermione concluded after she read the article.

"Who wrote it?" Charlene asked curiously, Hermione frowned and looked back at the article, squinting to see the name in the smallest print imaginable.

"Jesse-Belle Pokeerin." Hermione stated.

"I'm surprised that it wasn't Rita Skeeter." Ginny muttered.

"Well she is a little bug which I only _wish_ I could squash." Charlene said and unknowingly used her spoon to squish her pancake. Harry carefully took the spoon off of her after prying it from the colourmorphus' hand.

"Yeah, quite literally the bug." Ron said under his breath, Charlene looked confused but the others ignored it as mail came.

"Oh! That looks like a howler!" A third year exclaimed, some of the first and second year muggleborns looked confused and the elder students were surprised when it headed straight for the sixth year Gryffindors.

The red innocent looking envelope contrasted greatly with the jet-black feathers of the owl carrying it. The owl dropped it in front of Charlene, who quickly glared at both.

"Charlene?" Hermione said quietly, most eyes in the hall were on the group as Charlene grabbed the envelope and threw it high into the air as it started smoking. It then burst.

"CHARLENE LEANNE THERNEY WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? I HAVE TOLD YOU THAT STARTING A RELATIONSHIP IS POINTLESS AS YOU _ARE_ GOING TO CONTINUE YOUR CAREER! YOU'VE DEFIED ME BY NO LESS GOING OUT WITH THE MOST RAVING LUNATIC IN THIS WORLD! IF YOU DON'T STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS NOW I'M BRINGING YOU HOME!" Charlene fumed as the voice of her mother filled the hall and went bright red from anger. She stood and stormed out of the Great Hall, the owl following as everybody turned to look at the others.

"Well, I suppose that was new." Ron commented dryly, Hermione and Ginny both nudged him in the ribs with glares and then turned to Harry, who was sitting in his seat silently.

"Harry-" Hermione never got to finish her sentence because Harry stood abruptly and left the Hall.

"Oh bloody Merlin." Ginny muttered to herself.

SECTION BREAK 

The morning had passed quickly though Charlene had missed first lesson and those passing the Gryffindor Tower could hear her shouting at her mother through the Floo System and had avoided the room at all costs during that hour.

They were now assembled outside of Hagrid's hut waiting for Care of Magical Creatures to begin. Charlene and Harry had stuck together during their lessons to avoid the snide comments from the other houses (mainly the Slytherin's) and hadn't strayed further than an arms width from each other in the time they'd had together that day.

"'Ello class." Hagrid's gruff voice boomed over the class, silencing them. "T'day we'll be headed fer the lake." He instructed and led them over there where they could see a small pen.

"What's in there Hagrid?" Hermione asked worriedly, thinking it might be some dangerous creature again.

"These Hermione are Danish Dragons." Hagrid told the smart girl along with the rest of the class as he stepped out of their view.

One had to admit the things did look cute. They were a dark creamy beige colour and the scales changed to a golden sandy colour in the glint of the warm autumn sun. The dragons were so small they couldn't have reached the size of a kitten and they were just as adorable too as they fell over their own two feet as they came over to the edge of the playpen excitedly.

"Oh! They're so lovely!" Charlene squealed.

"Well, yer gonna be getting inta groups of 'round four to be looking after these dragons during yer lessons and research 'em for yer term project." Hagrid stated.

"Do they bite?" One student asked.

"Nah, they might chew yer a bit though." Hagrid replied unconcernedly, the class looked worried. "Get inta yer fours then!"

SECTION BREAK 

"Wow Hagrid, that was a good lesson." Hermione complimented as he let the class off a little early to get cleaned up before their last class of the day. Hagrid blushed.

"Thanks Hermione." He replied bashfully.

"Where'd you get them from?" Harry asked. Amazed as he ran his hand over his new little friend's scales.

"Well, Michelle Keriney got them for me. Met a guy on her travels for the torch who dealt with dragons like these ones." Hagrid told them, then clapped a hand to his mouth, "Shouldn'a said that." He muttered.

"Michelle Keriney?" "Torch?" Hermione and Harry both asked at the same time.

"Yer late fer class, get with yer." Hagrid reprimanded hurriedly and walked off quickly towards his hut.

"I think he knows something." Ron stated.

"No kidding." Hermione muttered sarcastically as she picked up her bag and walked off, the other three in tow. "I'll head to the library after transfiguration."

"Oh goodie."

SECTION BREAK

"Hermione, we have practice." Ron stated as he tagged along after the young woman who was searching through each of the interesting books she came across.

"Go then." She replied, Ron rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist, spinning her to face him.

"Come to practice or go to the common room or something! You can't spend all of your time in here." Ron told her.

"But-" Ron cut her off as his lips came crashing onto hers. "I-" Ron kissed her as she started to protest, again. "Fine." She muttered, Ron grinned and kissed her again, though Madame Pince, who coughed fakely and glared at them, interrupted the pair as the got more _involved_ in each other.

"We should head to practice." Ron said breathlessly, Hermione giggled and pulled him out of the library towards the Quidditch pitch.

Before Ron ran to join the team he pecked Hermione's lips and the young woman headed up the stairs to join Charlene in the stands.

"Hey, were you having fun?" Charlene asked teasingly, Hermione poked her tongue out at her friend childishly.

"We were in the library." Hermione informed the colourmorphus.

"So Pince kicked you out then?" Charlene asked.

"It wasn't my fault!" Hermione exclaimed as she watched Ron zoom by, "I'm certain that the keeper is supposed to stay at the goals." She added with a small laugh.

"I thought that too." Charlene agreed, "So what did you learn about this Michelle Keriney woman then?"

"Not much." Hermione muttered defeatedly, "I'll try again later."

"Ron and Harry are right, you do spend too much time in there." Charlene chided.

"I only want to learn!" Hermione defended.

"Well just try spend more time out of there, it'll make you seem boffish."

"Hey!" Hermione exclaimed indignantly. "That's not fair!"

"But it's true!" Charlene retorted, "You spend too much time in there! I'm surprised Ron even puts up with your damn study habits! You're too much like a... a Ravenclaw!"

"There is nothing wrong with Ravenclaws!" Hermione shouted, "Are you just jealous? I'm smarter than you and am not some stupid bimbo model wannabe!"

"_Excuse me_?"

"You heard me!" Hermione shouted, "You're just some stupid model and no doubt you are only dating Harry because he's a celebrity!" Hermione froze in shock and lifted a hand to the red imprint of a hand forming on her face. Charlene glared acidly at her and neither of them noticed Harry flying over to Ron to tell him about something and the team and other spectators watching them.

"I _love_ Harry." Charlene said in a dangerously low voice, "I thought you were my friend, I was obviously wrong." She added and walked off. Harry and Ron had heard the last part and were severely confused. Harry took off after Charlene and Ron dismounted his broom on the stands and walked the small distance between him and Hermione. He looked down at her confusedly and she looked up with hurt in her eyes.

"What happened?" Ron asked soothingly, he placed his hand over the one on her cheek and slowly removed it to reveal the slap mark. "Why did she hit you?"

"Do you like me Ron?" Hermione asked tearfully, Ron looked shocked.

"Of course I do! Why do you need to ask me that?" He replied, Hermione just shook her head as tears cascaded down her cheeks and she leaned into his reassuring hold.

SECTION BREAK

"Charlene!" Harry called; he had thrown his broomstick in its holster on his back and had run after his girlfriend. "Charlene slow down!" He exclaimed and grabbed her wrist to turn her to face him. Tearstains marked her angry red cheeks as more tears poured from her eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing. It was nothing." Charlene said with a shake of her head, not looking Harry in the eye.

"It's obviously something Charlene." He replied softly, "What's going on?"

"It was just a stupid argument." Charlene muttered. "Just a stupid argument." She repeated quietly to herself, Harry pulled her close to him as she started crying again.

SECTION BREAK

That evening saw only Harry, Charlene and Sara heading to see Remus, Alessandria and Jake as the girls hadn't talked to each other since their argument earlier that day and both had been oddly quiet, Hermione immersing herself more in her reading and Charlene sitting in front of a mirror absentmindedly changing colours. She now had dark skin the colour of chocolate and had chosen a coppery-orange shade for her hair, her eyes were cinnamon brown and each of her nails had different kanji on them in black on a white base.

Harry knocked on Alessandria's door and was happy to see who had opened it.

"Hey Tonks!" He exclaimed, Sara hugged the woman who looked scarily like Harry today with short messy black hair and bright green eyes.

"Wotcher big sister!" Sara said happily, Tonks laughed, shook her head and let them into the room.

"Wotcher Sara." Tonks replied, "So how are you guys?" She asked as Harry said hi to Remus and Jake.

"We're good." Harry replied, Charlene had yet to look up or detach herself from Harry as they both sat down on the remaining single seater, Tonks and Sara settled on the floor with Jake who was playing with a new monster truck toy.

"So how is practice for the next Quidditch match?" Remus asked with a smile.

"It's going good, except we missed most of today's practice." Harry stated.

"Oh? Why's that?" Alessandria asked curiously.

"Um..." Harry trailed off and looked at Charlene who had her head resting on his shoulder. "I don't actually know what happened."

"Yes you do." Sara said, "Charlene and Hermione had an argument, end of story."

"An argument?" Tonks asked.

"It was nothing." Charlene muttered, "Like Sara said, an argument."

"Why did you argue?" Alessandria asked, ignoring the teen's previous statement. "I don't mean to pry but I'm curious."

"We just did." Charlene answered shortly, still not raising her head from Harry's shoulder. Alessandria and Tonks shared a look with raised eyebrows.

"Charlene you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Tonks asked and the teen shook her head.

"It's nothing." She replied a little frustratedly as she lifted her head to glare at Tonks.

"Okay." Tonks said incredulously with a look of shock at the acid glare she had received from the normally kind girl. There was an awkward moment of silence where Jake made his way over to Alessandria and climbed onto her lap tiredly.

"So did you have fun in classes today?" Remus eventually asked the three students.

"I did!" Sara exclaimed with a smile, "In charms we learnt how to set things alight! And in DADA we were looking at dark creatures like dementors." Harry looked up sharply at this and looked at his sister incredulously.

"What?" He asked, then looked up at Alessandria, "I didn't learn about those until third year."

"These are dark times Harry, you should know that." Alessandria said quietly and she pulled her son closer to her. Harry nodded gravely as he thought of the Department of Mysteries again.

"I hope that they never send those to the school again." He stated, "And that I never have to go near one _ever_ again."

"You've faced dementors?" Sara asked in a small voice in which Harry swore he detected some fear. He nodded again to confirm it.

"In third year and the summer before last." He told her, Sara looked hesitant before asking her next question.

"What happens when they come near you?" Harry felt Charlene stiffen against him and pulled her tighter to him. He'd told her of the dementors affect on him and the one time she'd faced a dementor back on a tour through England around the time of Sirius' escape, she'd heard the sobs of whom she presumed was her mother at a younger age, begging for somebody to come back, though she'd never told her mother this and therefore didn't know who she wanted to come back.

"You know about them sucking the happiness out of people and you worst memory right?" Sara nodded, "Well when I come across them I... I hear my parents before they died." Sara took a sharp intake of breath.

"You remember that long ago?" She asked.

"It's the only memory of them I have." He told her.

"What would my worst memory be then? If it's that bad? Could it be something that happened when I was a baby then?" Sara asked worriedly.

"Could well be." Alessandria stated. "A few years ago mine was my father fighting with my mother when I was about eleven, it was about me going to Hogwarts."

"Mine's me getting bitten, I was three at the time." Remus told them.

"Mine's set when my Dad died, in a car crash." Tonks told them. They all looked at Charlene.

"I think it's my Mum crying, it's definitely a woman." She said softly as she looked up at them all. "She's crying about somebody leaving, I'm not too sure though, she's just begging God and the Higher Beings to let her have him."

"Have you asked your Mum about it?" Tonks asked curiously, Charlene shook her head.

"I wouldn't dare."

SECTION BREAK

Ron and Harry were getting sick of their girlfriends behaviour towards the other though didn't know how to handle it. The tension got worse in the days leading up to the Quidditch match as Ron, Harry and Ginny all had practice so the two girls were left on their own during those times, though they obviously preferred to stay alone then confront each other.

SECTION BREAK

Amidst the crowds of people waiting for the match to begin, Hermione sat on her own in one corner of the Gryffindor stands.

"Could I sit here?" Somebody asked quietly, Hermione looked up from her book at the burgundy and golden haired young woman and nodded in acknowledgement before going back to her reading.

"Hermione... I'm sorry." Charlene said timidly, it had been two weeks since their argument and both girls had avoided each other at all costs, it was now, during the first Quidditch match of the year that they were going to make up.

Hermione sighed and closed her book as Charlene made herself comfortable next to her.

"I'm sorry." She told the colourmorphus, "I shouldn't have called you a bimbo." She paused for a moment, "Or accused you of... using Harry."

"And I shouldn't have taken the mick out of you because you want to do well in school." Charlene stated, "Can we go back to how things were before?"

"Friends?" Hermione asked, Charlene nodded with a smile.

"Friends." She stated and they shared a brief hug before the game began. They watched as Harry and Malfoy desperately tried to damage the others hand as they were told to shake and then the quaffle was thrown upwards, the game starting.

"And they're off!" Litarina Dizman, a friend of Katie's from her dorm, stated. She was the new commentator and according to Katie 'Had an eye for the men'. "Gryffindor in possession, Macdonald passes to Bell, to Weasley (and that's Ginny not Ron), and back to Bell- WATCH OUT GIN!" Litarina exclaimed as a bludger hit Ginny's arm as she reached out to fake taking the quaffle from Katie. "YOU SCUMMER GOYLE!" Litarina shouted angrily as Ginny steered back on track, the girl ignored the pain and carried on playing, despite the crowds shouting and Harry's instructions to land.

"MISS DIZMAN!" McGonnagal shouted and reached to take the microphone from Litarina.

"I promise I won't be horrid about those slimy snakes anymore Professor!" Litarina exclaimed as she took the microphone out of the professor's reach. "Anyways, Ron's gotten better this year... definitely got a better backside-"

"Dizman!"

"Sorry! It's the truth! So Slytherin in possession, Blaise Zabini in possession, what is it with those idiots? Blaise is actually the first girl on their team for over two centuries, girl power Blaise! Back to the game, Zabini passes to Warrington, Warrington to Pucey though intercepted by Ginny, Weasley to MacDonald, MacDonald to Bell oh! No! That was a fake shoot, great going Nat! Fooled me! MacDonald to Weasley, who shoots and YES! GO GINNY!" Litarina exclaimed as Ginny got the quaffle through the right hoop past the Slytherin keeper Bletchley. Slytherin were booing whilst all the three other houses were cheering for the Gryffindors. "Gryffindor ten, Slytherin zero! Go Gryffindor! Slytherin in possession, Zabini's shooting up the field with that quaffle, wow! Go Jack." Litarina appraised as the fourth year sent Blaise Zabini careening off course as a bludger smacked into the back of her broom. "MacDonald back with the quaffle, she passes to Bell, back to MacDonald, she shoots and NO! Saved by Bletchley! Nice try though Natalie! Warrington passes to Pucey, back to Warrington, to Zabini who shoots- RON BLOCK IT!" Litarina screamed through the microphone as the quaffle went flying out of Ron's reach, "Damn! With the Slytherin's you have the bulky people and on the Gryffindor's team you have the fit dudes who can't do anything! I bet it's those girlfriends, I know where you are when you're late for practice boys." Litarina stated mockingly and laughed slightly when she saw Ron and Harry blush, Harry shot past the teachers stand and threw one of his gloves at the girl, "And how much could I get for this smelly glove on ebay then Harry?" She called.

"Back to the game please Dizman." McGonnagal said, Litarina nodded.

"Right, Weasley passes to MacDonald, MacDonald to Bell, Bell to Weasley, Weasley fakes a left turn and chucks it at MacDonald, damn those idiots fell for it! MacDonald shoots and scores!" Cheering once again came from three of the stands. "Pucey with the quaffle, passes to Zabini and- wait a second, what's Harry doing?" Litarina's attention turned to the raven-haired teen clad in his Gryffindor robes being chased on broom by somebody of the exact opposite. Harry's was zooming upwards before he pulled into a steep dive quite quickly. "Is this one of his famous Wronski Feints? Or has he seen the snitch?" Litarina asked herself and the crowd, though she screamed loudly as she saw Harry pump his fist into the air. "The snitch! Harry has the snitch! One-hundred and seventy to Gryffindor!"

SECTION BREAK

"Our foods running out!" Sara complained to Harry, who grinned,

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" He asked, only him, Sara, Charlene, Hermione, Ginny, Dean, Ron, Neville and Seamus were still downstairs at quarter to twelve. Sara poked her tongue out at him.

"Actually, I agree with him, you should be in bed." Hermione stated, Sara rolled her eyes.

"_Please_ let me stay down here! It's the weekend!" Sara exclaimed.

"Sara, Auntie Karla will kill me if she knows that I've let you stay up this late." Charlene said tiredly.

"I won't tell if you don't." Sara suggested.

"Bed." Hermione said firmly, Sara rolled her eyes again and got up from the floor before heading up to her room. "I think I might head up also, I have a lot of research to get done tomorrow." She added as she stood. "Night."

"Night." The others said and Hermione kissed Ron before heading up the girls' staircase.

"I'm gonna head up t-t-too." Charlene said around a yawn.

"I ditto that." Ginny muttered and both girls stood and left.

"Maybe we should head up too?" Neville suggested, the others nodded sleepily and went to bed, leaving Harry downstairs.

"Aren't you coming?" Ron asked, Harry shook his head.

"I have something to do." He stated and held up his invisibility cloak, Ron nodded and followed the others up the stairs, leaving Harry in the silence.

"Are they gone yet?" Charlene asked quietly from the stairs, Harry grinned and nodded before kissing her passionately on the lips.

"The Astronomy Tower is said to be beautiful at this time of night." He said suggestively, Charlene giggled and kissed him again as he brought the cloak around them.

The couple were silent as they manoeuvred around the halls, Harry regretted not picking his map up as they heard two people arguing their way towards them. Sinking into the shadows the pair recognised the voices.

"It's none of your damn business!" Alessandria shouted as she started down the corridor.

"It is my business if my sister is dating a monster!" Snape retorted, red in the face.

"I'm not dating him and he's not a monster!"

"He's a werewolf!" Snape accused.

"And? I love him Merlin-Damnit!" Alessandria exclaimed, "It doesn't matter to me! I've always loved him and I know he loves me so stay out of my social life for once!"

"When your social life revolves around that werewolf and Potter visiting you every night I _will_ get involved! Potter is just like his father you realise? Is that why you give him privileges?"

"Do not change the subject!" Alessandria shouted, "Why couldn't you ever accept the fact that I loved and still love him?" She asked as they reached the end of the corridor, Harry looked to Charlene.

"Let's not tell the others about this?" He asked, Charlene nodded and they headed back for the Common Room, not feeling up to looking up at the stars (among other things) that night.

SECTION BREAK

**AN: BTW, Danish Dragons? I made these up and I'd love it if you asked permission before using them! **


	11. Chapter 11 Back to HQ and Full Moon Arg...

**AN: Heya. Argh, I _despise_ school! After-school 'Catch-Up Classes' which are also known as 'Detentions', coursework, tests, exams and all the other stuff! Though the good thing (and only positive thing about school apart from getting a good future) is socialisation. Especially 'socialising' in science, ie, checking out my crush :p.**

**And Mum, you might not like this chapter or the next, lotsa kissing! What can I say? It's all in the name of Christmas....**

****

**Chapter 11 – **

Laughter could be heard from a secluded area around the lake of Hogwarts where a group of students from a variety of year groups and houses were spending their free Sunday before they left on the train back to their homes for Christmas the next day.

A shriek of surprise came from a pretty first year with a pale complexion and black hair that contrasted deeply with it; her large brown eyes glittered with happiness and excitement, which turned to shock as she was tackled to the ground and tickled mercilessly by her elder 'brother'.

"Harry!" Sara exclaimed around her laughter, "No! No! Get off of me you great big oaf!" She exclaimed.

"You've been taking lessons from Hermione haven't you?" Harry asked with an impish grin and he pulled her up from the ground, Hermione pretended to look offended as the others laughed at the state of the tiny girl.

"Oh Sara! You must be freezing!" Charlene exclaimed with a giggle as she took in the snow that covered her cousin.

"You bet I am!" Sara exclaimed as she brushed the snow from herself unsuccessfully. Harry chuckled and sat down next to Charlene on the blanket that they had brought out (and had charmed to not let water through and be warm, courtesy of Hermione).

&Oh be quiet.& Zodiac snapped, Harry and Ginny glared at the snake that had huddled up in another blanket Hermione had charmed.

"Shut up Zodiac." The pair said, the snake rolled its eyes and set it's head back down.

"What'd he say?" Neville asked confusedly.

"Just telling Sara to shut up." Harry informed with a wave of his hand as he absentmindedly ran a hand over the soft scales of his small friend.

"We didn't ask Remus about the willow tree in the end did we?" Hermione asked quietly as she twisted awkwardly to look at the engravings in the tree, they glanced at her.

"Nope." Harry muttered, "What with your fight and everything, we forgot." Hermione and Charlene both blushed bright red.

"Sorry." They both muttered embarrassedly to each other, it happened every time somebody mentioned the fight between the two young women, though it made the others roll their eyes at their stupidity, nobody except those two knew what the fight had been about, and it seemed to be staying that way.

"How do you think we are meant to get into the hollow part?" Ron asked as he ran his hand over the small crevice in the trunk that seemed to lead to the hidden secrets within.

"It has something to do with that knot." Seamus observed.

"Obviously." Ginny drawled, the others snickered and Seamus glared at Dean childishly as the Londoner kissed Ginny's neck as he continued snickering.

"Well I think that we should ask Remus tomorrow when we see him." Charlene suggested, the others nodded.

"Why don't we just wait until after the holidays?" Sara asked curiously, "I mean, none of us will be here to check it out after we've asked Remus as we're all going to the Order place, so we might as well forget about it for now, he might not tell us anything."

"True." Harry muttered, "But if Remus doesn't say much, we could get it out of Lessi."

"I can't wait to see Tonks again! She's so cool!" Sara exclaimed happily the next morning at breakfast, they'd be heading for the coaches that'd be taking them to Hogsmeade station in about ten minutes, so they were hurrying their breakfast.

"Lets just hope that she's not too much of a bad influence on you or I'll get the blame from Auntie Karla." Charlene stated with a mock-annoyed look at her cousin.

"It would actually be your fault." Sara stated.

"What?" Charlene asked incredulously, Harry stifled his laughter, family love, had to love it sometimes.

"Well I spend more time with you then I do with Tonks." Sara said matter-of-factly, scarily resembling Hermione for a split second.

"No you don't!" Charlene exclaimed, the two's bickering carried on all the way to the station, ranging in topics and things. They were obviously enjoying the bantering so the others let them be.

"I did not!" Charlene proclaimed, the others snorted and giggled.

"Did too! Mum told me!" Sara stated.

"Well Kayla doesn't know what she's talking about then!" Charlene exclaimed, "Because I have never mooned anybody!"

"Fine, believe what you want, but apparently you're really funny when drunk." Sara said nonchalantly in a teasing way, Charlene mock-glared at her cousin and settled into her seat (Harry's lap) on the train.

The train had barely started moving when the compartment door slid open again.

"Hi, mind if I join you?" She asked, Alessandria stood in the doorway with a smile on her face.

"No, come on in." Hermione replied, Alessandria opened the door further and stepped in before collapsing on the seat next to Dean and Ginny.

"What's up?" Charlene asked when she noticed the strange look on the professor's face.

"Just thinking." Alessandria replied as she watched Dean and Ron get ready for a game of chess. Neville was reading from a herbology book with Luna sitting at his feet with a cushion underneath her reading through the latest edition of the quibbler as Neville ran his free hand through her long dirty-blond hair. It seemed that Luna had caught his attentions in a good way, especially after she had ditched the strange radish earrings at the beginning of the school year, though Harry had a feeling that this new attention had started before then.

Hermione looked up from her book at Alessandria curiously. "It's Remus isn't it?" She asked the elder woman who blushed slightly.

"Remus?" Harry asked in alarm, "What's wrong with him?" He asked quickly and with wide eyes.

"Nothing Harry, Merlin, men really don't understand!" Charlene exclaimed.

"Of course they don't, the Gormin's are prone to attack young men who are in love." Luna replied dreamily, they stared at her for a moment before turning back to Alessandria, used to the bizarre girls behaviour.

"What's the big deal with Remus then?" Ron asked, dumbfounded by this conversation, it seemed that the other guys preferred to watch rather than participate in conversations like this.

"The _big deal_ is that he refuses to notice Lessi." Ginny stated, confusing her brother even more.

"Huh?" He asked.

"Basically, Lessi and Remus like-"

"Love." Alessandria interrupted Hermione, "Me and Remus love each other but he's being an arse because he thinks I'm safer when I'm not dating a werewolf."

"Oh." Harry muttered after a small moments silence.

"Maybe we could help you... change his mind?" Charlene said slowly, a mischievous smile forming on her face. Alessandria turned suspiciously to the teen.

"How?" She asked slowly, eyes narrowed in accusation before the plot had been formed.

"Well, there are a few things that I could think of." Charlene stated.

"I ditto that." Ginny said with a grin.

"And I bet Fred and George would be willing to help." Hermione suggested.

"I'm flattered that you'd like to help but this isn't the sort of thing that could be solved that easily." Alessandria told them, "I think I'm just about ready to give up on him." She added with a small sigh.

"Lessi-"

"Well, I have professor duties." Alessandria stated in a false cheery voice, "I'll be seeing you at the station." She left and the girls sighed.

"Oh he really has to get his act together." Hermione stated as she leaned into Ron's comforting hold on her.

"Or else he'll lose her." Ginny finished for Hermione, who nodded.

"Well, maybe somebody should talk to him." Charlene suggested, as if they shared thoughts, the three girls turned to Harry, who looked shocked.

"Don't look at me!"

"Hiya!" Ginny greeted cheerfully as she bounced towards the group waiting for them.

"Hello kids, Lessi." Remus greeted with a nod. Him, along with Charlie, Tonks, Moody, Bill, Jake and Mrs Weasley. Charlie and Tonks were holding hands and at the suggestive looks she received Tonks blushed. Alessandria bent down to her sons level and picked him up.

"Hey Sweetie. How have you been for Moony huh?" She asked, students around them stopped and cooed as they saw the young boy.

"Professor! He's so cute!" A group of seventh year Ravenclaw girls cooed as they come over to the group like a magnet.

"I know he is, aren't you?" Alessandria asked Jake who shook his head.

"No." He said in a small voice, the girls surrounding them all cooed again and the small child hid himself in Alessandria's jumper.

"Girls please, he's a little shy and we have to get going." Alessandria stated with a small laugh.

"Please bring him in class next year!" One girl begged.

"I will do Cassie." Alessandria replied with a smile as they set off towards the car park.

"How are we getting back?" Ginny asked as Alessandria put Jake down so that he could walk for himself.

"Portkey." Moody said gruffly, "We'll have to ensure that they can get in the house." He added, his magical eye obviously studying Charlene, Dean and Sara, though Dean was the only one who realised, as he was the only one who knew about the eye out of the three.

"Portkey?" Sara asked confusedly.

"Yeah, you hold onto a object and wait until you hit solid ground." Charlene stated briefly.

"Huh?"

"You'll find out soon enough little sis." Tonks stated as she swung an arm over the girls shoulder whilst they walked into a secluded area of the station.

"Everybody hold on." Arthur said cheerfully, holding out a broken but otherwise normal muggle broom. The adults held onto the bags tightly and Tonks had a firm grip on Sara also, even though the girl was holding the broom, albeit a bit nervously. "Activate." Said Arthur and they all lifted from the ground with a pulling feeling behind their navels. They landed on a cracked concrete floor a few seconds afterwards.

"Where are we?" Harry asked confusedly.

"In an alleyway just around the corner from Grimmauld Place." Remus explained as he gathered the scattered suitcases with his wand.

"Oh." Harry muttered, to be honest to himself, he was extremely nervous, though the nervousness went slightly when Charlene squeezed his hand softly from his side.

"Let's get moving, it's cold out here." Tonks exclaimed and leant into Charlie's warmth.

The huddled group made it's way towards the space between numbers eleven and thirteen Grimmauld Place. Moody handed Charlene, Dean and Sara slip of paper each and instructed them to read it, looking confused they followed the order.

"Whats-"

"Wait til we're inside Sara." Mrs Weasley interrupted quickly. The large house appeared from nowhere (shocking the three who had never been there before) and they were hurried in.

"Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix." Ron said grandly to them, Hermione rolled her eyes and took his hand once again before grabbing her light suitcase (she had performed a charm on it whilst at school).

"Come on, let's take our things upstairs with us." She suggested, the other teens nodded and took their things whilst Hermione and Ron led the way to the rooms they had used that summer.

After their things were left in their rooms they headed to the kitchen, where members of the Order were sitting and waiting for dinner. Sara eeped quietly and shifted herself so that she hid behind Harry.

"Professor Snape." She squeaked, staring fearfully at the man who ignored their presence for a moment.

"What are you staring at stupid girl?" Snape snarled at her, Sara eeped again and hid behind Harry further without realising it.

"Leave her alone Sev." Tonks reprimanded, and then turned to Sara. "He's a bastard," Tonks ignored Molly's shout of _"Tonks, she's a child!"_, "but you've got nothing to be scared about." Sara nodded and sat as far away from Snape as she could.

"So who are the new kids here then?" Kingsley Shaklebolt asked as he studied the three.

"Dean, Sara and Charlene." Tonks said, "Dean is Ginny's boyfriend, Charlene's Harry's girlfriend and Sara is mine and Harry's honorary little sister." Both Harry and Charlene blushed under the attention they were receiving.

"Ah, so this is the girl in person." Emmeline Vance said with a smile.

"We'd heard from Albus about you two, make sure you don't get caught in any broom closets." Sturgis Podmore said cheekily, causing the two to blush further and the others to laugh.

"Well at least we _haven't_ been caught." Harry shot at Ron and Hermione, who both took it as their turn to glow brighter than Ron's hair.

"Ha ha." Ron muttered sarcastically as Harry laughed at him. "At least I get to Quidditch practice and the DA on time."

"At least me and Charlene have the decency to save everybody's eyes in the _common room_." Harry retorted.

"What?" Ginny asked incredulously, "I've caught you and Charlene hundreds of times in there!"

"Well me and Harry are a better sight than Hermione and Ron." Charlene stated indignantly.

"Hey!" Hermione exclaimed, "Me and Ron are a nice couple."

"When you're not arguing." Charlene muttered.

"We've hardly argued since we started going out!" Hermione stated, at her friend's looks she rolled her eyes, "Okay, maybe once or twice but that was different."

"Yeah, then you had the fun way of making up." Ginny stated with a cheeky grin.

"Well at least me and Ron aren't plastered over the papers, people must be getting sick of it." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"I actually think it's quite sweet." Tonks said thoughtfully.

"Sweet? It's a surprise that the attention hasn't split them up." Ginny said.

"What?" Harry asked, "Me and Charlene wouldn't break up over some stupid articles."

"That's the point." Ginny told him, "Most celebrity couples would crack under the press attention. I mean, look at Hazzer and Barbie."

"Who and who?" Harry and Sara asked simultaneously, their expressions matching.

"Singers." Charlene inputted. "They did good duets too actually."

"Oh." Harry muttered. "Anyway, me and C aren't in the papers that often." He stated indignantly, Hermione shot him an incredulous look and picked up the Prophet from the space of table in front of her, which was just being loaded with plates for dinner.

"_Boy-Who-Lives and Top-Teen-Model Spend the Holidays Together!_" She recited sarcastically, "No, you're not all over the papers." She added.

"Well we're always going to be in the papers for one reason or another." Charlene said matter-of-factly.

"That article the other week was... inter-" shouting in the hall cut off Hermione.

"Remus I don't care!"

"I'm not letting you stay! You could get seriously hurt! What sort of mother would you make if you got bitten?" Remus retaliated.

"But I won't! You and I both know it!" Alessandria exclaimed.

"How? How do we know this Alessandria? I've told you over and over about what happened to your brother so why do you want to risk that with yourself?" Remus' tone lowered a little in concern and Snape glared at the door.

"Oh come on!" Alessandria exclaimed with exasperation, "You hated his guts! The wolf knew that just like he knows that you still love me!" Silence came over everybody for a moment, "Argh! Remus! Don't you dare run away from this argument you prat!" Alessandria came through the kitchen door a few seconds later, pain and anger written over her face. "Bloody men."

"What do you think you're doing?" Snape sneered at her, Alessandria looked to her brother.

"Waiting for dinner, what does it look like?" She replied with a sneer that was near identical to Snape's, shocking her students.

"You know what I mean." He retorted.

"It's none of your business." Alessandria stated.

"It damn well is!"

"Severus!" Molly shouted at him as the man stood up and slammed his open palms onto the table, "Mind your language!"

"Severus just leave me alone and stop trying to rule my life for once! I'm not a little girl anymore! I haven't needed your bloody protection since I started Hogwarts when I was eleven!" Alessandria told him as she levelled the glare he sent her.

"Why do you run around after that werewolf? He obviously doesn't return your unwanted affection!" Snape shouted at her, Alessandria looked shocked for a moment before walking out of the room at an extremely fast pace. Snape followed her moments later.

"That was... interesting." Tonks muttered after a moment's silence.

"Well those three have always caused trouble." A voice said from one corner of the kitchen.

"Professor!" Tonks exclaimed with shock, "We didn't notice you there!"

"Well I suppose that doesn't really matter for now." Dumbledore stated with a small smile, his eyes twinkling as usual. "Now I'm guessing it's time for another fabulous dinner that I think only the house-elves of Hogwarts could rival." Molly blushed as she prepared the table using her wand.

"Why thank you Albus." She said softly, "Now help yourselves." She added as she sat down next to her husband and eldest son.

They sat in silence for a brief moment, savouring the taste of Molly's delicious food.

"So Hermione, Ron, when did you two _finally_ realised that you liked each other?" Bill teased, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"A little while ago." She replied for herself and her boyfriend.

"Wow, it took you both five years." Fred commented.

"Longer than what it took Fred and Angie." George added.

"Don't call me that." Angelina said with a glare at the twin.

"Why not? Fredrick does." George stated pompously, Fred hit his brother round the back of the head.

"Don't call me Fredrick, it's friend." He said.

"_Boys_." Molly said warningly.

"Yes Mum?" The twins asked simultaneously, their expressions the same identical look of innocence that had the others at the table cracking up.

"Watch it." Molly finished; they nodded and carried on shoving food down their throats, stopping only to swallow.

"So Sara, what do you think of the wizarding world so far?" Molly asked the girl kindly.

"Oh, it's great. I've always known that there'd be somewhere I belonged and I found it." She stated confidently, "Though it feels weird seeing my picture in the paper."

"Well we still can't work out how they got those pictures of you." Dumbledore said thoughtfully, the trio shared a look but stayed silent.

"So how is the DA going?" Arthur asked.

"How do you know it's still going on?" Ron asked confusedly.

"It's hard to keep a secret from Albus children." Molly chided.

"So tell us, how's it getting on?" Fred asked eagerly.

"It's good." Harry stated, "It's a lot bigger than it was last year but we can handle it." He continued, "So how's the joke shop?" The twins grinned at this subject change.

"It's excellent." Fred started.

"Lots of customers."

"Mail-Order's from all over."

"Lots of profit."

"People asking us to open more stores."

"Willing victims for prototypes." George finished with a glare at his younger brother and sister.

"We don't want to be sprouting third ears!" Ginny exclaimed.

"It wouldn't last that long!" Fred retorted, Harry looked confusedly between the fighting siblings as they continued their pointless argument.

"Slipping that potion into my drink was no fair!" Ginny shouted angrily.

"It wasn't our fault that you drank it even after you said it tasted funny!" George stated, Harry noticed his two best friends trying to stifle their laughter, along with most of the table.

"What's going on?" Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione, Charlene, Dean and Sara leant forward to hear the answer.

"They had an argument over the summer, so as revenge, Fred and George kept trying out their prototypes on her." Hermione explained with a giggle.

"Her hair went multi-coloured, she was _not_ happy." Ron added with a laugh.

"Be quiet!" Molly shouted at her three children. "If you do not stop arguing this minute you will all be heading for an early bedtime!" That shut the three up.

"Wow, I never thought somebody could shut the twins up." Tonks stated, the two glared at her.

"Yeah well, it's an accomplishment."

"_Ginevra_." Molly warned.

"Sorry Mum." Ginny said with a wince at the use of her given name.

"Yes Ginevra, be a good little girl."

"Fredrick!"

"Hey! Don't blame me Mum!"

"Sorry Fred, you can never tell." Molly stated.

"Ah! Dean good chap! You've finished your dinner, now if nobody minds we're going to borrow him for a bit." George said with a strange look in his eyes as he took hold of the Londoner's arm.

"Yes brother, I think I'll join you." Fred stated with an equally strange look in his eyes.

"And I can't be one to miss out on brotherly duties." Bill added as he stood simultaneously with Charlie, Tonks felt sorry for their poor sister, who looked horrified with the prospect of her boyfriend alone in a room with all six of her brothers. She looked helplessly at Molly, who ignored the pleading look her daughter sent her.

"Don't be too mean on him." Tonks whispered to Charlie, who grinned and pecked her on the lips.

"We won't." He replied quietly. "By the looks of it Percy's coming too, he won't let anything happen."

"And I'm going." Ron stated as he stood and followed his brothers from the room.

"I want my boyfriend back intact!" Ginny called after them as Ron closed the door. "Oh they're going to murder him." The others laughed.

"You just wait until Ron meets my brother." Hermione said with a giggle.

"You have a brother?" Harry asked, Hermione nodded in reply. "Why didn't you say anything before?" Harry asked curiously, his best friend shrugged.

"You never asked." She replied, "I hardly see him anyway, he's thirty with his own family."

"Thirty?" Tonks asked, "That's a huge age gap."

"Thirteen years, yeah I know." Hermione stated, "But he's alright, his wife's really nice and they have a daughter who'd be about three or four now."

"That's nice." Molly said with a small smile, "It's about time Charlie and Bill settled down." She added and glanced towards Tonks, who fought her blush.

"Well they haven't just yet so there are no weddings to prepare." Arthur said to his wife. "And on the subject of our sons girlfriends, weren't they meant to come for dinner tonight?"

"That was next week dear." Molly told him as she stood and started clearing the dishes away.

"Oh, I'm getting forgetful in my old age." Arthur claimed.

"Ginny dear, would you mind taking this to Alessandria?" Molly asked kindly, holding a tray of food out to her daughter, "I'm sure that she's awfully hungry. And Tonks, maybe-"

"Please say Remus? I don't want to go near the greasy git." Tonks begged, Molly sighed and held out the next tray.

"Fine, take it to Remus please." She finished, Tonks grinned and took the tray from the elder woman.

"C'mon girls, let's go talk to Alessandria." Ginny said and she led the other girls (Hermione, Charlene and Sara) to Alessandria's room. Ginny knocked and they waited for the permission to go in.

"Lessi? We have food for you." Hermione called through the door. They heard somebody shuffle around for a moment before they were called in.

"Are you alright?" Sara asked quietly as she saw the tear tracks down the professor's face.

"I'm fine." Alessandria replied with a weak smile as she sat cross-legged on her bed and accepted the tray of food.

"Are you sure?" Charlene asked quietly, Alessandria sniffled and nodded, glancing over to the small bed in the corner in which her two-year-old son slept.

"So why are you crying?" Ginny asked as she made herself comfortable on the bed.

"It's complicated." Alessandria stated.

"Is it really?" Hermione asked, "Why is he doing this to you Lessi?"

"Because he's a werewolf and thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy." Alessandria snapped angrily, "He doesn't understand! I've loved him since I was a teenager, and he loves me but- but he's being selfish." They sat in silence for a moment as Alessandria tore a piece of bread from the small loaf she was given and dipped it into the gravy.

"How about we _make_ him realise how much he loves you?" Ginny asked with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Hermione asked tartly.

"Well, we might need Fred and George's help but..." Ginny went to explain hr plan and the group got more and more excited to make it work, Tonks had even joined them and they were up quite late plotting and planning until Alessandria sent them out telling them that she had a werewolf to see.

Alessandria watched nervously as the moon rose from her bedroom window, she had asked Tonks to look after Jake incase he woke and the girls had joined the metamorphmagi, using the excuse to spend more time plotting.

She crept down the corridor a little while after the moon had risen, it's beautiful sight stabbing sharp knives into her heart at the thought of him hurting.

Alessandria came to his door and held her hand against the handle, her wand gripped tightly in her left hand.

She slowly turned the doorknob and pushed open the door. She heard a snarl of warning and slowly slid into the room. Her eyes widened on seeing the wolf that stood on all four legs threateningly, snarling and growling at her. She shook her head to gain control over the fear that had encased her mind.

"Hey Moony." She said quietly, the wolf looked confused and calmed slightly, still standing in a defensive posture but looking at the woman before him with recognition. She took a slow step forward and slowly put her wand into her left pocket, leaving her hands free.

Alessandria held her hands out and bent down, leaving the wolf to approach her warily and sniff at her. She smiled as it nuzzled her hand and reached the other hand to scratch behind it's ear.

"Good Moony." She said softly as the wolf backed away to the fire on the other side of the room. She smiled and followed it, sitting down so that her back rested against Remus' bed. The wolf came up to her again and rested it's head in her lap. She continued to stroke him for a while. "You're going to kill me in the morning aren't you?" She asked and the wolf looked up to her with the same golden eyes as Remus with a look that said _'How did you guess?'_. "I'm guessing that the potion takes a while to work then? So that you get back to your human mind." She clarified at the confused look he sent her, and then he nodded as an answer. "Y'know, you're so easy to handle like this, no arguing or anything." She could've sworn she saw the wolf roll it's eyes at her. "I know that you love me." She stated, "And I love you too but I also know that you are scared because of... this." She stated, gesturing to him and the moon. "Do you see me running away? I can handle this, I already am handling it! So I think that me and you need to chat about this tomorrow." She told him and then yawned, "As for now I'm going to sleep and you should too." She said around another yawn as she lowered her head and got comfortable. They both closed their eyes and let sleep take over them.

"ARE YOU MENTAL!" Harry stirred at the sound of shouting floating along the second floor corridor. Ron and Dean were already awake and looked up quickly at the noise.

"Who-"

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME!" The shouting continued.

"WELL SORRY FOR CARING!" A female voice retorted angrily, the three boys looked at each other before running to the door and opening it slightly, it seemed that others had the same idea as they did as the four girls and Tonks were already standing in the small hall and the Weasley's all had their heads poking out of their doors.

"What's happening?" Harry asked his girlfriend sleepily.

"Remus is shouting at Alessandria for staying with him last night." Ginny filled in quickly.

"Wait, wasn't last night full moon?" Ron asked.

"_Nooo_, it was the Minister's birthday." Ginny retorted sarcastically and then hit him upside the head, "Of course it was full moon you idiot!"

"ARGH! MEN!" Alessandria shouted and they all shot back to their rooms before they heard a door slamming and Alessandria storming down the corridor before slamming her own bedroom door. Everybody poked their heads out of the doors again and looked between the two bedroom doors.

"That went well." Ginny muttered.

****

**AN: Whoops, got a _tiny_ bit sidetracked whilst writing this chapter, it's not _my_ fault that two sleepover-parties were over one weekend! Lol.**

**Another thing; for a romance type fic is there too much kissing? My mum really doesn't understand the way teens act and told me that there was too much kissing in the story, but then at school everybody is like how I write, the couples are always cuddling, making out or sharing sweet little kisses and I've tried to put that here, so is it too much? Or do you like this teen romance as it is? One confuzzled pixi here!**

**:p Nixi the Pixi**


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